Putin wants Trump deal – Moneyweb

Russian President Vladimir Putin has pushed back at prospects for European leaders to help negotiate an end to his war in Ukraine, dismissing them as mediators and pointedly insisting on a peace deal he said had been worked out with US President Donald Trump in Alaska.

“How can the European Union or individual EU countries serve as mediators when they are directly assisting the country with which we are in an armed conflict?” Putin said at a meeting with foreign media in St Petersburg late on Thursday.

“How can they be mediators? Mediation implies neutrality.”

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Officials from Europe’s three biggest economies – Germany, France and the UK – have been discussing the possibility of holding talks involving Russia and Ukraine, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. They have also talked about the matter with their Ukrainian counterparts, the people said.

Putin reiterated that he’d reached an agreement with Trump on what he said was a compromise peace deal at their summit in Anchorage last August.

EU states could play a role in ending the war “not by supplying weapons, but by trying to convince the Kyiv authorities to agree to the compromises we are talking about”.

Putin is insisting that Kyiv surrender the whole of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, including territory his forces have failed to capture in fighting since 2014.

Ukraine has rejected that demand and has proposed to halt the war along the existing front lines as part of a deal to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War II.

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US-led talks with Ukraine and Russia have stalled with Trump focused on the war with Iran.

With Moscow’s forces suffering mounting losses amid a stalemate on the battlefield and Russia’s economy under growing strain, the three European nations see an opportunity to potentially bring Putin to the negotiating table, the people familiar with the matter said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued an open letter to Putin late on Thursday, calling on him to meet directly to settle the war.

“I propose to set a clear date for such a meeting,” Zelenskyy said. “We have heard that you were promised in Alaska the resolution of certain issues concerning Ukraine and Europe. But you can see for yourself that Ukrainian and European issues are not decided in Anchorage.”

Zelenskyy said both Europe and the US should be part of the process of ending the war that’s now in its fifth year.

“This is what could help shape a new security architecture for our part of the world,” he said.

Who can be trusted?

Putin said Russia wants to know who could represent Europe in any negotiations, saying “they still need to be people who can be trusted”.

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He again raised the potential candidacy of former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whom he said faced criticism for being close to Putin.

“He’s not Putin’s friend,” the Russian president said. “He is a German statesman – and one of the best in my opinion because he has his own position and the courage to defend it.”

Putin insisted Russian forces are continuing to advance in Ukraine.

Threat to step up attacks 

After Russia carried out sustained heavy air strikes against Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions in recent weeks, he also issued a threat to potentially step up attacks with hypersonic Oreshnik missiles.

A Russian barrage of drones and missiles last week included an Oreshnik for the first time since January. Putin claimed it was used simply “where it was convenient to see the results.”

“We counted everything down to the millimetre,” Putin said. “This is important for us in order to make decisions in the future about the full-scale use of Oreshniks for the intended purposes, including in the urban area.“

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