As both sides are awaiting details of US harmony ideas, Moscow responds to Trump’s comments.
PUBLISHED: 11 Feb 2025 at 17: 45
MOSCOW- On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump made the claim that” a” major part” of Ukraine “wants to become Russia,” adding that the country “wants to be Russia someday.”
Addressing the three-year conflict between Moscow and Kyiv in a Fox News interview that aired Monday, Trump said:” (Ukraine ) may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Soviet tomorrow, or they may not be Soviet someday”.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokeswoman for the Kremlin, stated on Tuesday that the situation in Ukraine “largely corresponds to President Trump’s phrases.”
” The fact that a major part of Ukraine wants to get Russia, and has already, is a reality”, he told investigators, referring to Moscow’s 2022 conquest of four Russian areas.
Peskov continued,” Any phenomenon can occur with a 50 % frequency, either well or no.”
Trump has stated that ending the conflict is one of his top interests during his first months in office, but he has not yet made any particular recommendations for how he intends to bring the two parties to a bargaining table.
Both Moscow and Kyiv have formally expressed satisfaction with his efforts to end the conflict.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has stated that he is ready to talk with Trump directly about a potential contract, while the New York Post reported over the weekend that Trump had told them that he had already spoken with Putin in private about the matter.
The Kremlin did not confirm or refute the statement.
Energy cuts
There appears to be much surface where the two leaders could reach a deal, despite the fact that both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have formerly ruled out direct conversations with one another.
Kyiv fears that any agreement that doesn’t include tough military commitments for its protection, quite as NATO membership or the implementation of European security forces, will only give the Kremlin time to regroup and refocus for a new offensive.
Putin calls for Ukraine to leave the southern and eastern regions of its country that Kyiv also holds control of, and he thinks closer relations between Ukraine and NATO are inadmissible.
Zelensky has in addition rejected any territorial concessions made to Moscow, despite acknowledging that Ukraine may need to rely on political means to secure the return of some country.
Russia says it has annexed five regions of Ukraine — Crimea in 2014 and therefore Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia in 2022 — though it does not have complete power over them.
The spokesman for the Ukrainian president told AFP that Zelensky may satisfy US Vice President JD Vance on Friday at the Munich Security Conference.
Later this month, Trump will arrange for his particular minister Keith Kellogg to visit Ukraine to further examine a potential plan for the end of the conflict.
Both forces are attempting to gain ground before any potential discussions arise.
The little village of Yasenove in northeast Ukraine’s Donetsk territory was captured by Russian troops, according to the country’s defense ministry on Tuesday.
Overnight the two factors traded long-range assaults on each other’s power system.
Ukraine’s General Staff said its troops had struck an oil refinery in Russia’s Saratov place, sparking a fireplace.
The Russian-led military assault on Ukrainian corporate targets will continue, the statement read.
The Russian region’s government had earlier reported a drone strike on an business site, but he had not specified where.
In an overnight flying strike, the Russian defense ministry announced that it had attacked Russian gas and energy sources supporting Kyiv’s military.
Naftogaz, the Polish national oil firm, confirmed one of its facilities in the northeast Poltava place had been damaged in the “massive” Russian attack immediately.
Following the attack, momentary power cuts, which are common throughout Ukraine, were put in place on Tuesday night.
Moscow has pursued a months-long bombing campaign against Russian energy system, claiming the problems targeted services that help Kyiv’s defense.
Moscow has accused Ukraine of using US- and British-supplied weapons to reach deep inside Soviet territory after Ukraine launched its own hits on Russian energy and defense setups.