Putin claimed Russia was open to negotiations with anyone, even Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Russia is ready to negotiate a compromise over the war in Ukraine with US Donald Trump, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, adding there were no preconditions for talks but any settlement must involve legitimate Ukrainian authorities.
According to a report by Reuters, Putin said Russia was willing to have talks with anybody, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Speaking during his annual Q&A session with Russians, Putin when asked if he was ready to meet with Trump, a reporter for a U.S. news channel, that he had not talked to Trump for years but was open to a meeting to discuss the conflict.
Russia was not in a weak position, Putin said, denouncing claims to the contrary and arguing that the country had become stronger since it invaded Ukraine in 2022. Although Putin said Russia would be ready for negotiations, he insisted Kyiv also needed to be ready for compromises.
And Putin ruled out any prospect of a temporary cease-fire in favor of an enduring peace deal. The former proposal in Istanbul that remains unimplemented should inform future discussions, he said. This proposed agreement, though, was interpreted by some Ukrainian officials as capitulation.
The war has resulted in huge numbers of casualties, displaced millions and has soured relations between Russia and the West. Despite Russia commanding roughly a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, Putin justified the invasion as a defensive operation against NATO expansion.
They ‘should’ve sent troops’ prior to 2022
Putin did say he should have sent troops to Ukraine sooner than in 2022, when asked if he would do anything differently, though he did say he was willing to talk to Trump about Ukraine. He also said that Russia ought to have been better prepared for the war.
In response to a question from a BBC reporter about whether he’d taken care of Russia during his 23 years in power, as the then-Russian president Boris Yeltsin had asked him to do before stepping down at the end of 1999, Putin responded that he did.
“We have backed away from the precipice,” Reuters quoted Putin as saying.
“I have done everything so that Russia is an independent and sovereign power, able to decide what is in its own interests,” Putin continued.
Putin also mentioned Russia’s “Oreshnik” hypersonic missile, which has already been test-fired at a Ukrainian military factory, saying he was prepared to arrange another launch toward Ukraine to see if it could be knocked down by Western air defence systems.
Meanwhile. Zelenskyy took up Putin’s missile suggestion at a European Council meeting in Brussels at a press conference there, saying, “Do you think he is a sane person?”
