Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he was ready for talks with US counterpart Donald Trump on Ukraine, praising him as a “smart” leader who might have prevented the conflict from starting in 2022.
Kyiv reacted quickly, warning against being excluded from negotiations.
The Russian leader did not say when talks would take place, and the Kremlin said earlier it was still waiting for “signals” from Washington, despite Trump announcing on Thursday he was willing to meet Putin “immediately”.
“We have always said, and I want to emphasise this once again, that we are ready for these negotiations on Ukrainian issues,” Putin told a reporter from Russian state television.
Praising Trump as a “smart” and “pragmatic” man, Putin also repeated the Republican’s unfounded claim that he won the US presidential election against Joe Biden in 2020.
“I cannot but agree with him that if he had been president – if his victory hadn’t been stolen in 2020 – then maybe there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that emerged in 2022,” Putin said.
