During a phone discussion with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin assured him that Moscow would not “give up” on its goals in Ukraine and that it would continue to negotiate a settlement.
Moscow: According to a Kremlin aide, Russian President Vladimir Putin told US President Donald Trump over the phone Thursday that Moscow seeks a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine but will not abandon its initial objectives.
The assistant, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters that Trump “again raised the issue of an early end to military action” in Ukraine during a broad discussion that also touched on Iran and the Middle East.
“Vladimir Putin, for his part, noted that we continue to seek a political and negotiated solution to the conflict,” Ushakov stated.
According to Ushakov, Putin informed Trump that Moscow was prepared to resume talks with Kyiv and gave him an update on the execution of agreements signed between Russia and Ukraine last month to swap deceased soldiers and prisoners of war.
Our president stated, “Russia will not back down from these aims, which include the removal of the well-known core reasons that led to the current state of affairs and to the contemporary sharp confrontation.
The Kremlin summary contained no indication that Putin had changed Moscow’s stance during the meeting with Trump, who came to office promising to bring the war to a quick end but has frequently expressed displeasure over the lack of progress between the two countries.
The term “root causes” refers to the Kremlin’s claim that it was forced to wage war in Ukraine in order to keep the nation from joining NATO and becoming a base from which the Western alliance might launch attacks against Russia.
Although Trump has previously expressed admiration for Moscow’s rejection to allow Ukraine to join NATO, Ukraine and its European allies claim that is a phony excuse for what they describe as an imperial-style war.
According to Ushakov, Putin and Trump did not discuss the US decision to stop some vital arms shipments to Ukraine.
In regard to Iran, he stated, “the Russian side emphasised the importance of resolving all disputes, disagreements and conflict situations exclusively by political and diplomatic means” .
Last month, Trump ordered US military bombers to attack three nuclear sites in Iran, a move that Moscow denounced as unlawful and unwarranted.
