Putin was reminded over the phone by the US president-elect of “Washington’s sizeable military presence in Europe.”
According to The Washington Post on Sunday, which cited people familiar with the situation, US President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the phone on Thursday about the conflict in Ukraine.
Trump reminded Putin of “Washington’s sizeable military presence in Europe” and cautioned him against intensifying the conflict in Ukraine. In his words he advised Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine
Trump promised to find a way to end the war “within a day” during the election campaign, but he gave no details.
Trump had also spoken to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, according to media reports.
On Friday, the Kremlin said Putin was ready to discuss Ukraine with Trump but that did not mean that he was willing to alter Moscow’s demands.
On June 14, Putin set out his terms for an end to the war: Ukraine would have to drop its Nato ambitions and withdraw all of its troops from all of the territory of four regions claimed by Russia.
Ukraine rejected that, saying it would be tantamount to capitulation, and Zelensky has put forward a “victory plan” that includes requests for additional military support from the West.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Sunday cited “positive” signals around Trump, even while the Republican is “less predictable” than US President Joe Biden.
“He believes he can make a deal that will lead to peace,” Peskov said in an interview with state broadcaster Rossiya 1’s Kremlin correspondent. “At least, he talks about peace; he does not talk about confrontation or about wanting to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Saturday that preliminary work is under way to set up a meeting between Zelensky and Trump, the timing of which is unclear.
Meanwhile, street battles have started in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kurakhove, Russian security agencies told state-run Tass new agency, as Kremlin troops attempt to press their ground advantage at a time each side has ramped up drone launches.
“There is urban fighting in the territory” of the city, the agencies said, adding without evidence that Ukraine’s military was transferring additional troops into the area.
On Saturday, Ukrainian Commander in Chief Oleksandr Sysrksyi, in a Facebook post, called the situation in the areas surrounding Kurakhove and Pokrovsk “challenging” and “trending toward escalation”.
Russia’s accelerated ground advance in recent weeks threatens to overtake the southern part of what was once Ukraine’s industrial heartland.
After capturing the town of Selydove, Kremlin troops have aimed for Kurakhove – a crucial logistical hub in the southern Donetsk region.
Seeking to encircle the city, whose pre-war population of about 18,000 has dwindled to several hundred, Putin’s troops have advanced near villages several miles to the south and east, according to the monitoring platform Deep State, which maintains cooperation with Ukraine’s Defence Ministry.
Ukraine’s General Staff reported 39 attacks by Russia in at least eight settlements around Kurakhove on Sunday alone. It made no reference to street fighting within the city, though, in an operational post on social media.
The pace of Russia’s advance in eastern Ukraine has increased since mid-October, posing a threat to the entire southern part of the Donetsk region. While Moscow’s troops are incurring significant losses due to their “meat-grinding” approach, they still outnumber and out-gun Ukraine’s forces – and have been reinforced by the arrival in Russia of thousands of North Korean soldiers.
Separately on Sunday, Ukraine peppered the Moscow region with almost three dozen drones, causing flights to be halted for a few hours at airports around Russia’s capital, while a large wave of Russian UAVs targeted Ukraine.
The UAV barrage sustained by Ukraine was “a record 145 Shaheds and other strike drones”, Zelensky said on X. Over the past week, Russia launched more than 800 guided aerial bombs, around 600 strike drones, and nearly 20 missiles of various types, he said.
