Russia which in war with Ukraine, has said that it was ready to listen to US President-elect Donald Trump’s proposals on ending the war. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow and Washington were exchanging “signals” regarding Ukraine via “closed channels.”
Ryabkov did not specify whether this was with the current administration or the incoming Trump administration. According to an Associated Press (AP) report, Ryabkov said on Saturday, that Russia was ready to listen to Trump’s proposals on Ukraine provided these were “ideas on how to move forward in the area of settlement, and not in the area of further pumping the Kyiv regime with all kinds of aid”.
This comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Donald Trump on Thursday for his victory in the US presidential polls and said that Moscow was ready for dialogue with the Republican president-elect.
In his first public remarks since Trump's win, Putin said Trump behaved in a "very correct way, courageously, like a man."
"I take this opportunity to congratulate him on his election," Putin said while speaking at the Valdai discussion club in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, reported Reuters.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that Ukraine was ready to work with the Trump administration. While speaking to reporters, he said that Zelenskyy was “one of the first world leaders to greet President Trump.” Sybiha said that it was a “sincere conversation and exchange of thoughts regarding full cooperation.”
He said during the telephone conversation, further steps to establish communication between teams were discussed and work on this has already commenced. “We are open for further cooperation and I’m sure that a unified goal of reaching just peace unites all of us,” Sybiha added.
Sybiha was who was alongside EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who said his visit underscored the European Union’s support for Ukraine. “This support remains unwavering. This support is absolutely needed, for you to continue defending yourself against Russian aggression,” he said, according to AP.
Borrell urged “faster deliveries and fewer self-imposed red lines” in getting Western weapons to Ukraine. He had appealed to allies in August to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied long-range weapons to strike Russian military targets.
In the Ukrainian port city, of Odesa, one person was killed and 13 were injured following a Russian drone hit on Friday. Regional governor Oleh Kiper said high-rise residential buildings, private houses and warehouses in the Black Sea port city were damaged overnight by the “fall” of a drone. As per AP, He did not specify whether the drone had been shot down by air defences.
Ukraine’s air force said that 32 Russian drones were shot down, while 10 were “lost”, likely to due electronic jamming.
