St Petersburg, Jun 5 : Russia is “ready and willing” to reach an agreement with Ukraine based on US President Donald Trump’s peace proposal if Kyiv was ready to make certain “compromises”, President Vladimir Putin has said even as he asserted that Russian forces are dominating the battlefield.
In an interaction with heads of leading global news agencies, on Thursday night, the Russian President said Moscow is strengthening its air defences to counter Ukrainian drone strikes, asserting that the “patriotism and will of the Russian people” will ensure they achieve their goals in Ukraine.
In a related development, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in an open letter to Putin, called for a face-to-face meeting between himself and the Russian president to end the war peacefully.
Zelenskyy pitched for a full ceasefire to hold negotiations between the two sides arguing that peace could only come through direct engagement between Ukraine and Russia. The Kremlin said it received the letter.
“Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us – and you. I am proposing a meeting,” the Ukrainian president wrote.
Putin insisted that Ukraine will have to make compromises and specifically referred to the summit meeting he had with President Trump in Alaska’s Anchorage in August last year.
“Without doubt, we are ready and willing to reach an agreement with Ukraine by peaceful means — and based on what we have discussed at the meeting with President Trump in Anchorage,” Putin said.
“At that meeting, certain questions were put before Russia so that we could agree on certain compromises. Russia agrees to the compromises discussed in Anchorage. It is necessary that Ukraine also agrees to make them. Then, the conflict will be resolved naturally and quickly,” he said without elaborating.
Putin said Russian military has brought approximately 2,440 square kilometres of territory under its control recently by pushing Ukrainian forces and that there is not a single place in the battlefield where Russian troops ate not advancing.
“The offensive is ongoing on a daily basis. At present, the Russian Federation has taken full control of the Luhansk People’s Republic. Russia has brought over 85 per cent of the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic under its control. We also control 80 percent of the Zaporozhye Region. This process continues on a daily basis,” he said.
“Naturally, under these circumstances, the Ukrainian side would like us to halt the advance. But rather than stopping that, it would be better to bring the war to an end altogether by agreeing to the compromises that were discussed in Anchorage,” he said. Putin also dismissed the idea that European Union countries could act as mediators in peace talks with Ukraine.
“How can Russia trust people who have been harping about the need to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia for years?” he asked.
He suggested that the EU could help resolve the conflict by persuading Ukraine to compromise instead of supplying Kiev with weapons.
“As for the EU acting as a mediator in negotiations with Ukraine, there are obvious difficulties. But we are not rejecting contacts. If they want to talk, they know how to reach us,” he said.
Putin also questioned Zelenskyy’s legitimacy as the president, saying the Ukrainian leader’s presidential mandate has expired.
“Will they hold elections or not? Whether Zelenskyy is a legitimate representative of Ukraine, this is a question for the lawyers, for a legal analysis,” he said.
Although Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s official term expired in May 2024, elections remain suspended under the martial law declared following Russia’s invasion.
The Russian president accused the West of providing Ukraine with updated drones, some of which could breach the Russian territory.
Putin also said that Russia has not yet used its Oreshnik hypersonic missile against Ukraine, adding the latest strike was a test-firing of the weapon to observe the results.
“I will tell you a military state secret. We simply struck where it was convenient to see the results,” Putin said, adding that Russia could resort to full use of Oreshnik on targets, including in Urban areas.
Ceasefire negotiations have stalled in recent months after previous peace talks in Geneva, Abu Dhabi, and Istanbul failed to resolve the conflict triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
