Putin says he is ready for talks with ‘smart’ Trump on Ukraine
The Russian leader also repeated Trump’s claim that the Ukraine war might not have started in 2022 if he had been US president at the time
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.
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.
Kyiv reacted quickly, warning that Putin wanted to “manipulate” Trump.
