Russia has expressed willingness to collaborate with President-elect Donald Trump to improve relations with Ukraine, provided the United States takes the first step, Kremlin officials stated this week.
The announcement adds momentum to the possibility of peace talks as the war in Ukraine approaches its third year, Fox News reported on Friday.
During a press briefing in Moscow on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated that Russia is open to negotiations regarding its “special military operation” in Ukraine — the Kremlin’s term for its actions in the conflict — but emphasized that the U.S. must initiate any moves toward diplomacy.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Thursday that he is open to holding peace talks in Slovakia, referencing an offer made by the Slovak prime minister during a recent visit to the Kremlin.
“If the signals that are coming from the new team in Washington to restore the dialogue that Washington interrupted after the start of a special military operation [the war in Ukraine] are serious, of course, we will respond to them,” Lavrov said in Moscow.
But he stressed that the U.S. should move first, telling reporters that “the Americans broke the dialogue, so they should make the first move.”
Trump repeatedly said during his campaign that he would end the war on “day one” of his presidency, and now, based on comments from both the Russians and the Ukrainians, he appears to be on the cusp of fulfilling that promise.
Lavrov’s remarks follow an interview earlier this month on Fox News, where Trump’s nominee for Ukraine envoy, retired Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, stated that both Russia and Ukraine appear increasingly open to negotiating an end to the war.
Kellogg cited the significant toll of heavy casualties, widespread damage to critical infrastructure, and a pervasive sense of exhaustion in both nations as the conflict surpasses the thousand-day mark.
“I think both sides are ready,” Kellogg told Fox. “After a thousand days of war, with 350,000, 400,000 Russian [soldiers] down, and 150,000 Ukrainian dead, or numbers like that — both sides are saying, ‘okay, maybe this is the time, and we need to step back.’”
Russia has suffered significant losses in the war, with tens of thousands of soldiers killed and, as of this fall, an estimated 1,200 soldiers killed or injured daily, according to U.S. assessments.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been severely damaged by an extended Russian bombing campaign aimed at crippling portions of the power grid, plunging the country into darkness, and eroding the resolve of the Ukrainian population.
Russia launched a massive Christmas Day assault on Ukraine’s power grid, deploying approximately 70 cruise and ballistic missiles along with 100 strike drones to target critical energy infrastructure across the country.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Christmas Day timing was a “deliberate” choice by Putin. “What could be more inhuman?” he said in a statement.
Ukraine’s military has reportedly lost around 40% of the territory it had seized in Russia’s Kursk region, a setback that could further impact morale.
Lavrov’s comments also come as Kellogg prepares to visit Ukraine in January on what he described to Fox News as an information-gathering mission.
Kellogg declined to provide details about the objectives of his trip, stating only that he believes both sides are ready to bring the prolonged conflict to an end and that incoming President Trump could act as the “referee” in potential peace negotiations.
“Think of a cage fight. You’ve got two fighters, and both want to tap out. You need a referee to kind of separate them,” he said.
