Donald Trump has warned Vladimir Putin that “he’s destroying Russia by not making a deal” as he eyes talks to end the war in Ukraine.
On Monday, Trump returned for a second term as President of the United States, issuing a flurry of executive orders. But he also made clear that securing a peace deal to end the almost three-long conflict in Eastern Europe was a key priority.
Speaking to reporters upon his return to the Oval Office, Trump said: “He [Putin]should make a deal. I think he’s destroying Russia by not making a deal.
“I think Russia’s going to be in big trouble,” the Republican firebrand added.
Trump, who claimed earlier this month that he would be meeting with Putin “very quickly” after his inauguration, said the Russian President “can’t be thrilled, he’s not doing so well”.
“I mean, he’s grinding it out, but most people thought that war would have been over in about one week, and now you’re into three years, right?”
He added that Ukrainian president Vodolymyr Zelensky “wants to make a deal”, as per The Moscow Times.
Putin, who has yet to talk to Trump, congratulated him on taking office in televised remarks during a video call with officials and welcomed his intention to open a dialogue with Moscow.
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said the Kremlin is waiting for “concrete proposals that could form the basis for contacts,” but didn’t directly comment on Trump’s statement.
“We are open and ready for serious dialogue with the new U.S. administration on the Ukrainian conflict, and if relevant signals come from Washington, we would pick them up and stand ready to conduct talks,” he said, adding that the Kremlin has yet to receive any such signals yet.
As Trump campaigned for a second term, he vowed that he would negotiate an end to the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, in 24 hours.
He has since voiced hope that peace could be negotiated in six months.
Any such talks are expected to be protracted, with Moscow and Kyiv seeking battlefield gains to strengthen their positions ahead of any prospective negotiation.
In the past year, Russian troops have made slow but steady advances through Ukrainian defences, seeking to establish full control of the four regions in the east and south that Moscow illegally annexed early in the war but never managed to capture completely.
It is also launching waves of missiles and drones in a bid to cripple Ukraine’s energy network and other vital infrastructure.
Ukraine, in turn, has tried to secure and extend its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region and has also struck Russian oil facilities and other key targets important for Moscow’s war machine with missiles and drones.
According to the Associated Press, both sides have taken tough negotiating postures, with little room for compromise at present.
