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Zelensky accuses Putin of wanting to “manipulate” Trump on Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday accused Vladimir Putin of seeking to “manipulate” Donald Trump, after the Kremlin strongman welcomed the Republican billionaire’s return to power in the White House and said he was ready to meet to negotiate on Ukraine. kyiv had previously warned against any negotiations that did not involve Ukraine itself and the West. “He wants to manipulate the desire of the President of the United States of America to achieve peace,” Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily message on social networks. According to Ukrainian President Vladimir Putin, who launched his massive invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, is in fact ready to continue the war and “manipulate international leaders.” convinced that no Russian manipulation can now succeed”, he added, however. Moscow, kyiv and their allies are watching for the position that the unpredictable tenant of the White House will adopt on the Ukrainian conflict, to which he has repeatedly proclaimed wanting to put an end to it without ever making its intentions explicit. A conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, discussed for a long time but not yet materialized, is seen as an important step. For a week, both the Kremlin and the White House have said they want this dialogue. The American president “declared that he was ready to work together”, Vladimir Putin was satisfied on Friday during an interview on state television. “We have always said, and I would like to emphasize it again, that we are ready for these negotiations on Ukrainian issues,” he added. Earlier, the spokesperson for the Russian presidency Dmitry Peskov said he was waiting for “signals” from Washington on the subject. But he gave no indication as to the timing or nature of these signals. President Trump affirmed Thursday that he was ready to meet Vladimir Putin “as soon as possible” or even “immediately”. Denouncing “a ridiculous war”, he assured that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was “ready to negotiate an agreement”. Vladimir Putin assured him that the “crisis in Ukraine” of 2022, the year the conflict began, could have been avoided if Donald Trump “had been president, if victory had not been stolen from him in 2020”. thus took over the unfounded assertions of the American president on alleged electoral fraud in 2020. – Not without Ukraine – In kyiv during the day, the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration Andriï Iermak denounced the fact that the president Russian wants to “negotiate the fate of Europe without Europe” and “talk about Ukraine without Ukraine”. Ukraine fears being pushed to the negotiating table in an unfavorable position, because it is struggling on the front, and being forced to cede its territories occupied by Russia. Volodymyr Zelensky, long hostile to any negotiations with Moscow, has recently mentioned this possibility but on the condition of solid security guarantees for his country from the West. The Kremlin, in essence, demands the surrender of Ukraine, that it renounces joining NATO and that Russia keeps the Ukrainian territories for which it has claimed annexation.- Oil and strikes -Thursday, during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Donald Trump called for hitting Russia’s wallet by lowering oil prices. If these were lower “war in Ukraine would be immediately finished”, he estimated. Vladimir Putin, praising on Saturday the “pragmatic” and “intelligent” character of Donald Trump, estimated that the latter would not take such a decision which would also harm “the economy American”.The return of Donald Trump to the White House occurs at a time when Russia undoubtedly has the advantage on the front.The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Friday the capture of Tymofiïvka, a small village in the region from Donetsk (east). Hundreds of kilometers from the front, Russian strikes left three people dead in the kyiv region, according to a new report announced Friday by the Ukrainian authorities. For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that it had shot down 120 Ukrainian drones overnight over 12 of its regions, including Moscow, one of the largest attacks of this type against its territory since the start of the conflict. The Ukrainian army claimed responsibility for a nighttime drone strike on a refinery in the Ryazan region south of Moscow, as well as a microcomponents factory used for weapons production in the Bryansk region in the southwest of the Russian capital. bur/alf/lpt/ib
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