MOSCOW — The Kremlin reported this Monday that “several countries” have offered to host the possible face-to-face meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, that will return to the White House next January 20.
This was confirmed by the Russian presidential advisor, Yuri Ushakov, in statements to the media after being asked about possible proposals made by the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, considered close to Putin; or his Slovak counterpart, Robert Fico, visiting Moscow this Monday.
“We have already received several proposals in this regard from various countries. I will not say which countries they are so as not to determine the possible or impossible development of events, but proposals have been made and are being made,” Ushakov said from Moscow, according to the TASS news agency.
Trump has assured on several occasions that he would be able to end the war in Ukraine. Furthermore, during his first term he maintained cordial relations with the Russian leader and now a possible in-person meeting has not been ruled out.
The tycoon won the United States presidential elections at the beginning of November against his Democratic rival and current vice president of the country, Kamala Harris. Trump will take office on January 20, certifying his return to the White House four years after falling to Joe Biden.
“A butcher shop”
Trump said he will speak with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Volodimir Zelensky, to end the war unleashed by the Russian invasion because it is “a carnage.”
“We will talk to President Putin and we will talk” to “Zelensky and the representatives of Ukraine. We have to stop it, it is carnage,” he recently told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
During the US election campaign, Trump promised that he would end the war in one day. The conflict has left cities in ruins, “there is not a building standing,” Trump declared at the press conference.
The tycoon turned to his experience as a real estate developer in New York to make a comparison. “It’s just rubble. Just like when I knock down a building in Manhattan,” he said.
Russia’s demands
Specifically, Russia demands that kyiv give up the five regions annexed by Moscow (Donetsk and Luhansk in the east and Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south, in addition to Crimea, annexed in 2014) and that it renounces joining NATO.
Zelensky has long been adamantly opposed to making concessions to Putin, but in recent months he has qualified his stance due to his army’s difficulties on the front and fear of weakening Western aid.
He has floated the idea of Ukraine temporarily giving up claims to Russian-controlled territories in exchange for NATO security guarantees and more Western arms deliveries.
This Monday Putin took stock of the combats in 2024 and congratulated himself on the progress of his troops.
The Ukrainian forces, smaller and less armed than the Russian ones, are gradually losing ground.
