Vladimir Putin says he is “open to contact” with Trump without preconditions

Vladimir Putin is “open to contact” with Donald Trump without preconditions, the Kremlin announced on Friday, welcoming the desire of the American president-elect to “solve problems through dialogue”. The Russian President “has repeatedly stated that he is open to contact with international leaders, including the President of the United States, including Donald Trump”Dmitri Peskov, its spokesperson, told the press.

“It is a mutual desire and political will to resolve problems through dialogue”

“No conditions are required, what is needed is a mutual desire and political will to resolve problems through dialogue”continued Mr. Peskov, ascribing precisely this quality to the American president-elect. “Donald Trump demonstrates his desire to resolve problems through dialogue. We welcome this (…). We start from a mutual desire to meet”he continued, while specifying that there was currently no concrete plan for a meeting between the two men.

Donald Trump, who is due to take office on January 20, said Thursday that he was preparing a meeting with Vladimir Putin to “to end it” with the conflict in Ukraine. The Republican billionaire promised during his election campaign to put an end to “in twenty-four hours” to the conflict in Ukraine and has already called for a “immediate ceasefire” and talks.

Putin, for his part, is still calling for Ukraine to surrender, for it to renounce joining NATO and for Russia to keep the Ukrainian territories for which it claimed annexation.

Ukraine wants to end the war

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, for its part, said on Friday “see nothing new” in Donald Trump’s comments on a possible meeting with Vladimir Putin. “All of us in Ukraine want to end the war fairly for Ukraine and we see that President Trump is also determined to end the war”commented the spokesperson for this ministry, Georgiy Tykhy, quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

According to him, kyiv is preparing for discussions with American officials “immediately” after Donald Trump takes office in ten days, including with Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelensky.