Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Already war-fatigued and with the universal law of diminishing returns making his own stay in power vulnerable, Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to climb down on Ukraine and make a ‘compromise’ after a potential meeting with Donald Trump, whose second non-consecutive term as the 47th US President will begin on January 20, 2025.
According to the media reports on Thursday, Putin said he was open to possible talks with US President-elect Donald Trump, who has pledged to negotiate a deal to end the conflict in Ukraine.
“If we meet with Mr. Trump, we will have things to discuss,” he said, without elaborating at his annual news conference and call-in show in Moscow on Thursday.
President Putin said he was ready to compromise on Ukraine in possible talks with the next US President on ending the war and had no conditions for starting discussions with the Ukrainian authorities.
“Politics is the art of compromise,” he said, adding, “We have always said that we are ready for both talks and compromises.”
However, the Russian leader threw a rider: the talks should be based on “the situation on the ground,” he said, referring to some of the conditions he previously laid out.
Earlier, he demanded that Ukraine renounce its bid to join NATO and recognize Russia’s territorial gains in the ongoing war, which started with the Russian invasion of its neighboring country on February 24, 2022.
However, Kyiv and the West, until now led by the Democrats-ruled USA, have rejected Putin’s pre-conditions.
President Putin claimed that his military operation in Ukraine strengthened Russia and denied that the ouster of key ally Bashar Assad from Syria had hurt Moscow’s honor.
He used the meticulously planned media event, which lasted about four and a half hours, to reinforce his authority and demonstrate a sweeping command of everything from consumer prices to military hardware.
According to him, sending troops into Ukraine in 2022 boosted Russia’s military and economic power. “Russia has become much stronger over the past two or three years because it has become a truly sovereign country,” he said. “We are standing firm in terms of economy, we are strengthening our defense potential and our military capability now is the strongest in the world.”
President Putin, who has held power in Russia for nearly a quarter-century and began another six-year term earlier this year, said the military was “advancing toward achieving our goals” in what he called the “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Asked about a new hypersonic ballistic missile that Russia used for the first time in November to strike at Ukraine, Putin mocked claims by some Western experts that it could be intercepted by NATO’s air defenses.
He challenged Ukraine’s Western allies to a “high-tech duel,” suggesting that Moscow could give advance notice of a strike on Kyiv with the Oreshnik missile and see if the West could protect the city. “Let them select a target, possibly in Kyiv, put their air defense assets there and we shall strike it with the Oreshnik,” he said with a dry smile. “Let’s see what happens.”
Reacting to Putin’s statements, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, visiting Brussels, questioned the Russian leader’s well-being. “Do you think it’s a sane person?”
Russia is making slow but steady advances in Ukraine but has also suffered embarrassing setbacks. On Tuesday, top Russian military expert, Lt. Gen Igor Kirillov, was killed by a scooter bomb planted outside his apartment building in Moscow — a brazen assassination claimed by Ukraine that brought the conflict once again to the streets of the Russian capital.
Putin described Kirillov’s killing as a “major blunder” by Russia’s security agencies, noting they should learn from it and improve their efficiency.
Moscow’s troops are also battling Ukrainian forces in the Russian region of Kursk, where they have launched an incursion. Asked when they would drive the Ukrainians out, Putin said “We will certainly kick them out” but wouldn’t say how long it would take.