EPAPresident Vladimir Putin has said Russia will achieve all its objectives by force if Ukraine does not agree to a deal.
“It seems to me that if common sense prevails, it will be possible to agree on an acceptable solution to end this conflict,” Putin said. “If not, then we will have to resolve all our tasks militarily.”
He praised the “sincere desire” by Donald Trump to find a solution – a day after the US president said he was “disappointed” in Putin, following Russia’s attacks in Ukraine since their Alaska summit.
Trump has tried to persuade Putin to meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, but the Russian leader has not agreed to do so.
“I have never ruled out the possibility of such a meeting. But is there any point? Let’s see,” he said.
He added that any such meeting required preparation in advance to yield results, and that Zelensky could always go to Moscow to see him – a “knowingly unacceptable” idea, as Ukraine’s foreign minister was quick to point out.
Ukraine’s president has been highlighting Putin’s refusal to meet as a way of urging Trump to impose sanctions on Russia and boost Ukraine’s defences.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.
Putin was speaking in Beijing after attending a massive military parade hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The event – also attended by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and leaders of some 20 other countries – was seen as a challenge to the US-dominated global world order.
It did not go unnoticed by Trump who wrote on his social media platform: “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un as you conspire against the United States of America.”
Asked by a Russian state TV journalists whether the war in Ukraine could end soon, the Russian leader said “there is a certain light at the end of the tunnel”.
But he went on to stress that Russia would not relinquish the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine his troops have seized.
The Russian leader repeated his demands for Ukraine not to seek to become a Nato member and to stop what he called discrimination against ethnic Russians – one of the allegations mentioned as a pretext for the invasion.
Putin hinted that security guarantees that Ukraine’s Western allies have promised to provide Kyiv after a future peace deal would not relate to the Donbas areas whose inhabitants had opted to join Russia – a reference to widely-criticised votes held in the aftermath of the annexation.
On Thursday, the French president will host a meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing – a grouping of allies of Ukraine.
A source at the Élysée, Macron’s office, has said the group want to secure American backing for a plan to press Russia to agree a ceasefire, with allies extending security guarantees to Ukraine immediately, rather than waiting for a peace deal.
President Trump pressed Putin for a ceasefire during their summit in Alaska last month, but then emerged from the talks saying the search for a peace deal would be a better way of ending the conflict.
Putin has rejected calls for a truce and his troops have intensified attacks on Ukrainian cities. More than Russian 500 drones and 24 cruise missiles were launched on Wednesday night alone.
