Ukrainian leader Volodimier Zelanski on Friday warned that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin wanted to “manipulate” Donald Trump, the Kremlin chief praised the American leader and said he was ready to interact with him.
Kiev had earlier warned against any Putin-Tram peace talks on a war of nearly three years without its and European participation.
“He wants to manipulate the President of the United States to achieve peace,” Zelansky said during a daily address on social media. “I am confident that no Russian manipulation will be successful now.”
He said that Putin, who started a full -scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, was ready to continue the war and “manipulate the leaders of the world”.
Putin first praised Trump as a “smart” leader who would have stopped the struggle from starting.
The Russian leader did not say when the conversation would take place, and Kremlin said that on Friday, Washington was waiting for “signs”, Trump despite announced on Thursday that he was ready to meet Putin.
Putin told a reporter of the Russian state TV, “We have always said, and I want to emphasize it once again, that we are ready for these talks on Ukrainian issues.”
Praising Trump as a “smart” and “practical” man, Putin also reiterated the Republican’s unfound claim that he won the US presidential election against Joe Biden in 2020.
Putin said, “I cannot agree with him that if he was the President – if his victory was not stolen in 2020 – then perhaps there would not be a crisis in Ukraine in 2022,” Putin said.
– Pressure from Trump –
The Ukraine conflict has submerged the relationship between the two nuclear powers since the Cold War.
Trump, who was inaugurated on Monday, called the struggle “ridiculous” and threatened Russia with strict economic sanctions if he does not agree to stop his aggressive.
Republican said during an interview with a Fox News on Thursday, “If they soon resolve this war, almost immediately, I am going to put a large scale tariff on Russia, and large -scale taxes and big restrictions Also, “Republican said during a Fox News interview on Thursday.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on the same day, Trump said that he would ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to reduce oil prices, claiming: “If the price decreases, the Russia-Ukraine war ends immediately Will be done.”
Putin pushed Trump’s claim that low oil prices could accelerate at the end of the conflict.
Putin said on Friday, “I have a difficult time that imagines that decisions will be harmful to the American economy.”
– ‘Come back to reality’ –
No party has shown signs of enmity since the inauguration of Trump, despite the President claiming that he would end the struggle once in power in “24 hours”.
Kiev warned against being out of any talks on Friday.
The head of Ukraine’s presidential office Andry Yarmak said, “He (Putin) wants to interact on the fate of Europe – without Europe. And he wants to talk about Ukraine without Ukraine.”
“It’s not going to happen. Putin needs to return to reality, or will be brought back. It is not how it works in the modern world.”
Ukrainian officials said on Friday that Russian airstrikes near Kiev killed three people and injured several others, while Ukraine injured at least 12 Russian areas in at least 12 Russian areas including the capital Moscow, including the capital Moscow. Removed drones.
Kremlin has started drone or missile attacks in Kiev almost every day after sending troops to Ukraine in February 2022, which target military and energy facilities.
In a statement on social media, emergency services said, “Three people were killed in an enemy attack in the Kiev area.”
A drone piece killed a 10-storey residential building, after which the head of the area said that a private house was also killed, it was said.
Black smoke was saved from a residential building damaged in the strike as rescue workers excluded the bodies of the victims, official images from the scene.
In Russia, the Ukrainian Army stated that it launched an overnight drone attack at an oil refinery, power station facilities and an electronics plant.
State media reported that six Ukrainian drones in the Briansk region stopped work by a microelectronic factory after damaging production and storage facilities.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is published by a syndicated feed.)
