Ukraine-Russia latest: Putin hails ‘courageous’ Trump after election win as president-elect says ‘we’ll speak’
Trump said he had probably spoken to 70 world leaders since his historic election - but so far Putin was not one of them
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Your support makes all the difference.Russian president Vladimir Putin on Thursday congratulated Donald Trump on winning the US election and said Moscow was ready for dialogue with the president-elect.
In his first public remarks since Trump’s historic win, Putin said Trump had acted like a real man during an assassination attempt on him while he was speaking at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July.
“He behaved, in my opinion, in a very correct way, courageously, like a real man,” Putin said at the Valdai discussion club in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. “I take this opportunity to congratulate him on his election.”
Putin said remarks Trump had made during the election campaign about Ukraine and restoring relations with Russia deserved attention.
“What was said about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to bring about the end of the Ukrainian crisis, in my opinion this deserves attention at least,” said Putin.
The incoming US president 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,” Kurt Volker, former US special representative for Ukraine negotiations, said.
Russia claims town in eastern Ukraine, state media reports
Russian forces captured the village of Kreminna Balka in Ukraine‘s eastern Donetsk region, the Tass state news agency has claimed , citing the defence ministry.
The Independent could not independently confirm the battlefield report, though DeepState, a Ukraine-based organisation that tracks developments on the frontline, and is known to have close ties to the military, has updated it’s map to include Kreminna Balka in Russian-occupied territory.
In pictures: Ukrainian soldiers train in Donetsk
Edwina Currie on selling her antiques to raise money for Ukraine
Edwina Currie on selling her antiques to raise money for Ukraine
The former MP tells Lisa Salmon about taking part in TV show Celebrity Yorkshire Auction House, and the Ukrainian family that lives with her.
Russia's Shoigu says West should negotiate end to Ukraine war based on current realities
Top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu has claimed that the situation in the combat zone in Ukraine is not in Kyiv’s favour and that the West should accept this and negotiate an end to the conflict, the Interfax news agency reported.
“Now, when the situation in the theater of military operations is not in the favour of the Kyiv regime, the West is faced with a choice - to continue financing it and destroying the Ukrainian population or to recognise the current realities and start negotiating,” Shoigu was cited as telling a meeting of secretaries of Commonwealth of Independent States countries’ security councils in Moscow.
His comments came as Donald Trump became president-elect in the US for a second time, only months after vowing to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. His vice-president, JD Vance, has also talked about ceding Ukrainian territory to Russia to secure a deal.
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