Putin says Trump’s Ukraine proposals merit attention

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Vladimir Putin on Thursday congratulated Donald Trump on his US election victory and said he was ready to speak with him, describing the Republican leader’s campaign trail comments on restoring relations with Russia and ending the Ukraine war as “worthy of attention”.

The Russian president said he had normal relations with Trump in the past, and would be willing to take his call, or to contact him first.

“I have said before that we will work with any head of state who is trusted by the American people. That will indeed be the case,” Putin added, speaking at the annual Valdai conference in southern Russia.

Trump told NBC shortly after Putin’s comments: “I think we’ll speak.”

Trump added he had spoken to “probably” 70 world leaders since he secured his election victory, including Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but he did not divulge details about that conversation.

Putin confirmed Trump’s statements about bringing an end to the Ukraine war — triggered by Moscow’s full scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022 — had not gone unnoticed.

“It seems to me, it deserves attention what was said about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to help end the Ukrainian crisis,” Putin added.

Trump’s election win has ignited fears in Kyiv about the future of American support for Ukraine’s war effort.

Trump has previously called Putin a “genius” following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and said he would end the fighting on “day one” if he were to be re-elected — although he has provided few details about how he would achieve this.

Despite Putin’s apparent willingness to consider Trump’s foreign policy proposals, he showed no flexibility in Russia’s negotiating position on Ukraine.

“We’re ready for peace talks, but not on the basis of some ‘Oh we want this’ by Ukraine, which change from month to month, but on the basis of the realities . . . on the ground today,” Putin said.

In comments that were more flattering than those Putin normally adopts when discussing western leaders, the Russian president said Trump had shown himself “brave” and “manly” during an attempt on his life while on the campaign trail in July.

Putin said Trump had been “hounded from all sides” during his first term as US president, and that prevented him from taking any major actions.

Trump’s first four years in office were marred by allegations of Russian interference in the US electoral process, and questions over relations between members of his team and Russian officials.

It triggered a US investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, which did not establish any conspiracy between Trump and the Russian government, but detailed an array of contacts between the Republican leader’s campaign and Moscow.

Additional reporting by Felicia Schwartz in Washington