During his annual question-and-answer session on state TV, Vladimir Putin told a reporter from a U.S. news channel that he was open to meeting with Donald Trump, whom he mentioned he had not spoken to in years. When asked what he could offer Trump, Putin rejected the notion that Russia was in a weak position, claiming that the country had grown stronger since he ordered troops into Ukraine in 2022.
“We have always said that we are ready for negotiations and compromises,” Putin remarked, adding that Russian forces were advancing across the front and moving toward their primary goals in Ukraine. He stated that in his opinion, soon there would be no Ukrainians left willing to fight, and that Russia was prepared, but the other side needed to be open to both negotiations and compromises.
Putin expressed his willingness to discuss a ceasefire with Trump but ruled out major territorial concessions. He also insisted that Ukraine must abandon its ambitions to join NATO.
Putin also emphasized that Russia had no preconditions for talks with Ukraine and was willing to negotiate with anyone, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. However, he stressed that any agreement could only be signed by Ukraine’s legitimate authorities, which, in the Kremlin’s view, currently only includes the Ukrainian parliament. He added that Zelenskyy, whose term had technically expired but who had postponed elections due to the war, would need to be re-elected for Moscow to consider him a legitimate signatory of any deal to ensure it was legally sound.
Putin dismissed the idea of agreeing to a temporary truce with Kyiv, stating that only a lasting peace deal would be acceptable. He noted that any negotiations should start from a preliminary agreement made in the early weeks of the war during talks in Istanbul, which was never implemented. Some Ukrainian politicians see that draft deal as a capitulation that would have significantly limited Ukraine’s military and political ambitions.
Latest Map of the Russia-Ukraine War
🔴The areas captured by Russia
