Russian President Vladimir Putin declared on Friday that he is “ready” for negotiations on the Ukraine conflict with his US counterpart, Donald Trump, although neither Moscow nor Washington has proposed a timetable or agenda for the much-anticipated talks.
Kyiv, however, has rejected any discussion on Ukraine that does not include Ukraine itself.
Moscow, Kyiv and their allies are all closely watching to see the stance the unpredictable occupant of the White House will take on the Ukraine conflict, which he has repeatedly claimed he wants to resolve, without ever clarifying his plans.
A conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, long discussed but yet to materialise, is seen as a crucial step. Over the past week, both the Kremlin and the White House have expressed a desire for this dialogue.
“The American president has declared that he is ready to work together,” Vladimir Putin said in a state television interview on Friday.
“We have always said, and I want to stress again, that we are ready for these negotiations on Ukrainian issues,” he added.
At this stage, Trump’s positions remain difficult to pin down. The US is Ukraine’s primary military supporter, and Trump has criticised this aid multiple times, yet he has also recently threatened Moscow with more sanctions if an agreement with Kyiv is not reached.
Putin assured that the “crisis in Ukraine” that began in 2022 could have been avoided if Donald Trump “had been president, if they had not stolen the victory from him in 2020.”
In doing so, he echoed the unfounded claims of electoral fraud made by Trump regarding the 2020 election.
