‘Plan to end Ukraine war’ emerges after Zelenskyy has ‘great’ call with Trump
Vladimir Putin has made his first public comments about president-elect Donald Trump since winning the White House, as Russia conducted a huge attack on Ukraine. Follow updates.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Donald Trump on his election victory in his first public comment on the outcome of the US 2024 presidential election.
The comments were made during an international forum following a speech in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Mr Putin noted that what Mr Trump said “about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to help end the Ukrainian crisis, in my opinion, deserves attention at least.”
″I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate him on his election as president of the United States of America,” Mr Putin said in a question-and-answer session at the conference in Sochi.
When asked what he expects from a second Trump presidency, Mr Putin said, “I don’t know what will happen now, I have no idea.”
“For him, this is still his last presidential term. What he will do is his matter.”
Earlier Mr Putin called the president-elect a “courageous man” for surviving an assassination attempt on him in Pennsylvania in July, Reuters reports.
“His behavior at the time of the attempt on his life made an impression on me,” Mr Putin said. “He turned out to be a courageous man.”
“And it’s not just about the raised hand and the call to fight for his and their common ideals ... He behaved, in my opinion, in a very correct way, courageously, like a man,” the Russian leader said.
Shortly after Mr Trump had a bullet graze his ear he he held up his clenched fist and yelled “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
During his rallies he has bragged that Ukraine and Russia should not be at war and that the invasion would not have happened if he were president. He has bragged that he could end the conflict overnight.
RUSSIA CARRIES OUT MASSIVE AIR STRIKES ON UKRAINE
It comes as Russia carried out a massive drone attack on Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv.
The attack came just hours after Mr Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, The Guardian reports.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said five districts were hit. Falling debris set fire to a high-rise building and blew out windows. There were further air strikes in Odesa, Kherson and Sumy provinces, with two people killed.
Around 30 drones were intercepted.
Four people were killed in a strike on a cancer hospital in Zaporizhzhia and five air strikes destroyed an apartment block. Eighteen people were hurt, including two babies and a child, officials said. Rescuers are searching for survivors.
Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy again urged allies to give Ukraine more military aid.
TRUMP’S PLAN FOR ‘OVERNIGHT’ PEACE
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Donald Trump’s claims he could quickly solve the conflict in Ukraine are exaggerated.
“Of course, there was a little bit of over-exaggeration that he would be able to do it overnight,” said Mr Peskov.
“Certainly, there’s nothing that can heal this problem overnight,” he told reporters.
“But at least if the new administration is going to look for peace, not for the continuation of the war, it will be better.”
The Kremlin had previously reacted to Mr Trump’s election by highlighting that US-Russia relations remain poor and calling the United States “an unfriendly country that is both directly and indirectly involved in the war against our state.”
When asked by press about Vice President Kamala Harris’ statement in a September debate against Mr Trump that Russian President Vladimir Putin would “eat you for lunch,” Mr Peskov replied, “Putin doesn’t eat people.”
Mr Trump’s reported plan to end the Ukraine war has emerged after Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a call congratulating the president-elect.
It comes as the US election winner and Vladimir Putin are also reportedly likely to speak soon – and the Russian’s army continues to brutally attack Ukraine.
During the 2024 US election campaign the Mr Trump did not reveal his peace plan, but ending the war in Ukraine will be one of his priorities.
Mr Trump would establish a demilitarised zone down the locked frontline, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Kyiv would not join NATO for 20 years, but the US would continue to provide Ukraine with military aid to prevent Mr Putin from invading again.
Who would police the demilitarised zone remains unclear, according to the sources, but it wouldn’t involve American troops or an international body.
According to The Sun, an anonymous member of the Trump team said: “We can do training and other support but the barrel of the gun is going to be European.
“We are not sending American men and women to uphold peace in Ukraine. And we are not paying for it. Get the Poles, Germans, British and French to do it,” the source said.
It remains unclear if the Ukrainians approve of the plan – but Mr Zelenskyy has already spoken to the president-elect.
The Ukrainian leader wrote on Telegram that he had an “excellent” call with Mr Trump and congratulated him on his landslide victory.
The Ukrainian said: “Strong and unwavering US leadership is vital for the world and for a just peace.”
Meanwhile, The Independent reported Mr Trump will simply tell Mr Putin to “stop the war.”
Kurt Volkner, who was Mr Trump’s special representative for Ukraine between 2017 and 2019, said Mr Trump will immediately push for peace.
He said Mr Trump is “going to make a phone call to Putin as quickly as possible and tell Putin that he needs to stop the war, that the fighting has to stop, and that there has to be peace.”
The Kremlin has responded saying “we will see” about Mr Trump’s plans and that the US was still an unfriendly country.
Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “We have repeatedly said that the US is able to contribute to the end of this conflict.
UKRAINIANS FRET OVER TRUMP VICTORY
Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 US presidential election has been felt all the way to Ukraine, sparking anxiety on the streets of Kyiv and Kharkiv at a decisive moment of the war with Russia.
Ukraine is reliant on foreign military aid, particularly from the US to keep up its battle against Moscow’s invading forces, now bolstered with support from North Korea.
As the war with Russia approaches the three year mark, civilians in Ukraine are alarmed at the fallout from a Trump presidency.
Natalia Pichakchi, who fled the southern city of Mariupol that is now controlled by Russian forces after a brutal siege in 2022, said she expected that crucial aid would begin to dry up.
“It’s worrying. It’s disturbing,” she told AFP.
“Something will change; there will not be the same kind of support as before,” she added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy quickly congratulated Mr Trump on his “impressive victory” saying he hoped his presidency would bring “just peace in Ukraine closer”.
Mr Trump’s aides, however, have suggested forcing Ukraine into territorial concessions by conditioning US assistance.
“I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach in global affairs,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
“This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer.”
But Mr Trump, whose running mate JD Vance said he does not care about the fate of Ukraine, has boasted that he can quickly end the Ukraine war.
In Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, which lies near the Russian border and has been under persistent aerial bombardment, some residents said Trump’s previous statements meant little.
“He is an ambiguous person. Today he says that he is friends with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and tomorrow he says he is ready to help Ukraine end this war,” said Yulia Boyko, a student.
“So we will see what happens next,” she told AFP.
“He’s an unpredictable person. And that’s why I think anything can happen. For Ukraine, it will depend on how he communicates with Putin,” said Dmytro, another Kharkiv resident who declined to give his last name.
Olga Prykhodko, a teacher in Kyiv, said, “I’m concerned that support could decrease, but I hope that reason and democratic principles will prevail.”
Igor Stryzheus, 52, “It worries everyone. It worries the whole world – not only Ukraine”.
“We’ll have to wait and see what happens next,” he added.
NK TROOPS CLASH WITH UKRAINE, NUMBERS HIGHER THAN THOUGHT
North Korean troops have entered Russia’s war against Ukraine, clashing for the first time with Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, according to a senior Ukrainian official and a senior US official.
The US official told The New York Times a significant number of North Korean troops were killed.
It is not clear when the fighting, which is believed to have been limited engagement designed to probe the Ukrainian lines for weaknesses, took place.
The North Korean troops are part of an estimated 10,000 soldiers sent by leader Kim Jong-un, to bolster Russian forces.
But the Pentagon said, “We think that the total number of DPRK forces in Russia … could be closer to around 11 to 12,000,” with “at least 10,000 right now in the Kursk Oblast,” Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder told journalists, using an abbreviation for North Korea’s official name.
Top US officials had last week put the number of Pyongyang’s soldiers in Kursk – where Ukrainian troops have been conducting a ground offensive since August and control several hundred square miles of Russian territory – at about 8000 out of a total of 10,000 in Russia.
Mr Ryder said he expected other North Korean troops in Russia to likewise be sent to Kursk, but added that the Pentagon could not at this point confirm reports that they have entered combat.
South Korean Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun last week said the rogue state had sent more than 1000 missiles to Russia, in addition to troops heading there to fight in Ukraine.
“More than 1000 missiles have been provided,” Mr Yong-hyun told a news conference in Washington, saying North Korea had also sent millions of munitions pieces.
Seeking advantage in his grinding invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has brought in troops and military hardware from North Korea, the first time Russia has invited foreign forces on its soil in more than a century.
Citing US intelligence, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that some 8000 of the 10,000 North Korean troops believed to be in Russia have made their way to the Kursk border region.
“We’ve not yet seen these troops deploy into combat against Ukrainian forces, but we would expect that to happen in the coming days,” Mr Blinken told a news conference after four-way talks with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and the South Korean foreign and defence ministers.
Russia has been training North Korean troops to handle artillery and drones and to clear trenches, “indicating that they fully intend to use these forces in frontline operations,” Mr Blinken said.
Austin said the deployment of North Korean troops, who he said were being put in Russian uniforms, “just underscores how badly Putin’s war has gone.”
“This 10,000 won’t come close to replacing the numbers that the Russians have lost,” Mr Austin said.
UKRAINE OUTRAGE
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking to South Korean media, said he was surprised by the “silence” of China.
“I think that the reaction to this is nothing; it has been zero,” Mr Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, on a visit to Canada, called the North Korean troops a “true escalation of this war” and urged Western partners in response to “lift all the restrictions” on firing long-range missiles into Russia.
Austin later said that the United States would soon announce new military support to Ukraine. South Korea for its part has been evaluating whether to send weapons directly to Ukraine, breaking its longstanding policy against sending arms into active conflicts.
NKOREA LAUNCHES BALLISTIC MISSILE
Japan’s defence minister said North Korea had fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) class towards the East Sea last week.
“Around 7:11 am today (2217 GMT Wednesday) North Korea launched at least one ICBM-class ballistic missile from an area near Pyongyang toward the northeast,” Gen Nakatani told reporters, adding that its flying distance was estimated at about 1000 kilometres (620 miles) and its highest altitude more than 7000 kilometres.
The launch came just hours after US and South Korean defence chiefs called on Pyongyang to withdraw its troops from Russia.
“I call upon them to withdraw their troops out of Russia,” US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the Pentagon, speaking alongside his South Korean counterpart Kim Yong-hyun, who urged the “immediate withdrawal” of North Korean soldiers.
If North Korean troops “are fighting alongside Russian soldiers in this conflict and attacking Ukrainian soldiers, Ukrainian soldiers have the right to defend themselves,” Mr Austin said.
They would be “co-belligerents, and you have every reason to believe that … they will be killed and wounded as a result of battle,” he added.
Experts have said that in return for these forces, North Korea is likely aiming to acquire military technology, ranging from surveillance satellites to submarines, plus possible security guarantees from Moscow.
Russia and North Korea have boosted their political and military alliance over the course of the Ukraine conflict. Both are under sanctions – Pyongyang for its nuclear weapons program, and Moscow for its war against Kyiv.
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Originally published as ‘Plan to end Ukraine war’ emerges after Zelenskyy has ‘great’ call with Trump