Putin Says He’s ‘Ready’ For Potential Talks With Trump On Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has admitted that he has not spoken to US President-elect Donald Trump in almost four years, but is “ready” for prospective discussions, amid expectations that the new government in Washington will push for a negotiated conclusion to the conflict in Ukraine.

During his prolonged year-end news conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin also declined to say when Russian soldiers would recover the southern Kursk area from Ukraine, saying that they were making progress “along the entire frontline.”

The Moscow event on Thursday, December 9, will include a public Q&A session as well as a public phone-in, as Putin does every year to demonstrate his complete control over the country.

“You asked what we can offer, or what I can offer to the newly elected President Trump when we meet,” Putin said in response to a question from NBC’s Kier Simmons.

“First of all, I don’t know when we will meet. Because he hasn’t said anything about it. I haven’t spoken to him at all in over four years. Of course, I am ready for this at any time, and I will be ready for a meeting if he wants it.”

When asked if Russia’s negotiating position will be weakened by recent failures in the Middle East and on the battlefield in Ukraine, Putin replied; “You said that this conversation will take place in a situation when I am in some weakened state… And you, and those people who pay your salaries in the US, would very much like Russia to be in a weakened position.

“I adhere to a different point of view. I believe that Russia has become much stronger over the past two or three years. Why? Because we are becoming a truly sovereign country, we are already hardly dependent on anyone.”

Trump has denied having several phone discussions with Putin since leaving office, contradicting a recent book by renowned journalist Bob Woodward, who said the two had had “maybe as many as seven” chats January 2021.

When asked about Russia’s southern Kursk, where Kyiv’s soldiers are trying to hold some villages following a surprise incursion launched in August, Putin declined to say when Russia will retake the entire territory, but did pledge it would happen.

“I cannot and do not want to name a specific date when they will push [the Ukrainian Armed Forces out of the Kursk region],” he said.

“Our guys are fighting, there is a battle going on right now, and serious battles. It is unclear why, there was no military sense in the Ukrainian Armed Forces entering the Kursk region, or holding on there now as they are doing, throwing their best units there to be slaughtered. But nevertheless, it is happening.”

He added, “We will definitely push them out, there is no other way.”