Putin on Trump’s comments on ending the war in Ukraine

Moscow:

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he took seriously U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump’s comments that he could bring a quick end to the fighting in Ukraine.

Trump said during a debate with President Joe Biden last week that, if elected, he would have the conflict “resolved” before taking office in January 2025.

“The fact that Mr. Trump, as a presidential candidate, says he is ready and wants to stop the war in Ukraine, we take that very seriously,” Putin said at a press conference in Astana.

Russia typically refers to its military offensive in Ukraine as a “special military operation.”

Putin added that he was “not familiar” with Trump’s specific proposals to end the fighting, now in its third year.

“That, of course, is the key question,” Putin said.

“But I have no doubt he means it and we support that,” he added.

Putin has always said he is open to negotiations on ending the conflict, although last month he demanded that Ukraine effectively capitulate as a precondition for a ceasefire.

The Kremlin leader called on Ukraine to withdraw its troops from the south and east of the country, vacating the territory currently held by its forces, if it wanted Russia’s offensive to end.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the idea of ​​a temporary ceasefire, which he says Russia would use to regroup and rearm.

Kiev wants Russian forces to be completely withdrawn from the country, including the Crimean peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014, as part of any deal, and for Russia to pay compensation for the damage and destruction caused by the conflict.

Russian troops have made modest advances on the battlefield this year after a Ukrainian counteroffensive in 2023 was unsuccessful.

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