Putin Says Russia Is Open To Dialogue On Ukraine With Trump

President Vladimir Putin said Russia’s ready for talks with the US on the war in Ukraine as he offered congratulations to Donald Trump on his inauguration as president.

“We congratulate the US president-elect on taking office,” Putin said Monday at a televised meeting of his security council ahead of the inauguration in Washington. Russia welcomed Trump’s desire to restore direct contacts and his statements on the need to prevent a third world war, he said.

“We are open to dialogue with the new US administration on the Ukrainian conflict,” Putin said. “Its goal should not be a short truce, not some kind of respite for regrouping forces and rearmament with the aim of subsequently continuing the conflict, but a long-term peace based on respect for the legitimate interests of all people, all nations that live in this region.”

Trump said earlier this month that a meeting with Putin is being set up, raising the prospect that he could push to start negotiations to make good on his pledge to bring a swift end to the war in Ukraine. The two leaders haven’t yet spoken directly since Trump won election as president in November.

Putin usually holds televised meetings of his security council on Friday. The decision to broadcast Putin’s remarks on Monday, hours before Trump took office, underlined the Kremlin’s eagerness to establish relations with the new president and to try to gain advantage in any negotiations.

The moment was chosen to allow the Kremlin to reinforce the message that it’s pragmatic and friendly for Trump, according to Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. It’s important that the president talked about peace and not a ceasefire, she said by phone.

“Putin thinks that a window of opportunity is opening and he wants to use it 150%,” Stanovaya said.

Putin has said repeatedly that he’s open to talks about a settlement to Russia’s nearly three-year-long war, even as he also insists he won’t give up territories that his army seized in the east and south of Ukraine since he ordered the full-scale invasion.

With Russian forces advancing steadily on the battlefield, the Kremlin’s likely to take a hard line in any talks. Russia will demand that Ukraine abandon its ambition to join the NATO alliance and become a neutral state with a limited army in any talks with Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump so far hasn’t outlined publicly how he intends to bring Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to the negotiating table.

Zelenskiy signaled in an interview with Polish media last week that the war, which started in February 2022, is more likely to end this year because of Trump’s sway over Russia. “Trump really wants to end the war,” he said. “He’s able to put the pressure, influence Russia.”

Advisers to Trump are crafting a wide-ranging sanctions strategy to facilitate a Russia-Ukraine diplomatic accord in the coming months, people familiar with the matter said last week.

One set of policy recommendations — if the Trump administration believes a resolution to the war is in sight — involves some good-faith measures to benefit sanctioned Russian oil producers that could help seal a peace deal, the people said. A second option would build on the sanctions, ramping up pressure even further to increase leverage.