Putin: we may not have invaded if Biden hadn’t ‘stolen’ 2020 election

The Russian president said he was ready to speak about the conflict in Ukraine with his American counterpart, whom he described as smart and pragmatic.

President Vladimir Putin said he would speak to Donald Trump about the conflict in Ukraine. Picture: Yuri Kadobnova/AFP/Getty Images

Vladimir Putin said the war in Ukraine might have been avoided had the US election not been “stolen’ from Donald Trump in 2020.

Repeating claims long made by the American leader, Putin, talking to a Russian TV reporter, also said that he was ready to meet Trump to discuss the conflict and other issues causing friction between the White House and the Kremlin.

“I cannot but agree with him that if he had been president – if his victory hadn’t been stolen in 2020 – then maybe there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that emerged in 2022,” Putin said.

He added: “It would be better for us to meet, based on the realities of today, to talk calmly on all those areas that are of interest to both the United States and Russia. We are ready.”

The Russian president also described Trump, who this week threatened to hit Moscow with new sanctions and tariffs if it did not negotiate an end to the war, as smart and pragmatic.

During his presidential election campaign, and prior to it, Trump asserted that Putin only invaded Ukraine in February 2022 because of a lack of respect for Joe Biden’s leadership, and said it would not have happened if he had remained in the White House.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that he won the 2020 election and was denied the presidency by voter fraud. These claims have never been substantiated.

Kyiv immediately responded to the comments from Putin, claiming that any negotiations over Ukraine must include European leaders.

“He [Putin] wants to negotiate the fate of Europe – without Europe. And he wants to talk about Ukraine without Ukraine,” the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said on Telegram.

“This is not going to happen. Putin needs to come back to reality, or he will be brought back. This is not how it works in the modern world.”

The Russian leader was speaking after continued fighting overnight.

A missile parts factory was hit and a fire engulfed an oil storage depot in Russia after Ukrainian drones allegedly attacked 13 Russian regions.

Air defence units destroyed 121 drones in the assault, Russia’s defence ministry said - six over the Moscow region and one over the capital itself. No casualties were reported immediately.

Video from Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow, showed flames and columns of black smoke above the oil depot and a heat and power plant.

Other strikes were mainly targeted at areas bordering Ukraine such as Bryansk, Kursk, Belgorod and Rostov regions, the defence ministry said.

In Bryansk, the Kremny El microchip plant - which makes components for Russia’s Pantsir air defence weapons and Iskander missiles - was forced to shut down after six drones damaged the production line and a warehouse, its press office said.

Emergency services at a block of flats near Kyiv after the Russian drone attacks on Friday. Picture: EPA/The Times

Meanwhile, authorities in Kyiv said three people had died overnight in Russian drone attacks on Ukraine. The two men and a woman were killed in the Kyiv region, where another person was injured, the interior ministry said. An apartment building, private homes and commercial buildings were damaged.

Exchanges of drones have increased since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. While many are shot down or jammed electronically, some reach their targets with devastating effect.

The British Ministry of Defence said on January 13 that it “remains unlikely” that Russia can sustain approximately 1500 launches of kamikaze drones against Ukraine every month, having fired 1700 in December and 2300 in November.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed this month that Russian air defences had “downed and intercepted” 7300 Ukrainian drones over Russian soil in 2024, a quarter of them in the Belgorod region.

Ukraine’s military confirmed on Friday that its latest drones had struck facilities involved in supplying Russia’s army, including oil facilities in Ryazan and the microelectronics production plant in Bryansk.

Pavel Malkov, the governor of Ryazan, said 20 drones had been shot down over the region but a facility had been hit by falling debris which set it alight. A fire on the roof of a private house had been quickly extinguished, he added, reporting no casualties. Emergency services were dealing with the aftermath of the air attack.

The Times