 "Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit blamed the West for the Ukraine war. Reuters")
Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to achieve all its military aims if Ukraine does not agree to a deal, days after US President Donald Trump’s 50-day deadline to get Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the negotiating table passed.
“It seems to me that if common sense prevails, it will be possible to agree on an acceptable solution to end this conflict. If not, then we will have to resolve all our tasks militarily,” the Russian president said.
Putin made the comments in China after he attended the country’s Victory Day parade with Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a show of signs that have threatened Trump amid his trade measures.
On July 14, Trump set a 50-day deadline for Putin to get to the negotiating table with Zelenskyy. That deadline passed on September 2 and there is still no sign of a meeting between the two leaders.
‘What’s the point?’
While there are no indications of a possible Zelenskyy-Putin meeting yet, the Russian president has said, “I have never ruled out the possibility of such a meeting. But is there any point? Let’s see.”
He added that any such meeting would require proper preparation to be effective, and suggested that Zelenskyy could visit Moscow to meet him, an idea Ukraine’s foreign minister swiftly dismissed as “knowingly unacceptable.”
The Russian leader reiterated his demands that Ukraine abandon its pursuit of NATO membership and end what he described as discrimination against ethnic Russians, a claim that was among the justifications cited for the invasion.
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More ShortsTrump to speak with Zelenskyy
Meanwhile, Trump has said that he will soon speak with the Ukrainian president as the war drags on, despite his deadline and efforts to bring the two countries into a ceasefire.
“I’m having a conversation with him very shortly, and I’ll know pretty much what we’re going to be doing. … I’ll be speaking to him over the next few days, and we’re going to see,” Trump said.
“I have no message to President Putin. He knows where I stand, and he’ll make a decision one way or the other. Whatever his decision is, we’ll either be happy about it, or unhappy. And if we’re unhappy about it, you’ll see things happen,” he added.
The White House has announced that a phone call between Trump and Zelenskyy will take place on Thursday.