GENEVA (Reuters) -Russia is open to negotiations on an end to the Ukraine war if initiated by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, but any talks need to be based on the realities of Russian advances, Moscow’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva told reporters on Thursday.
Trump has repeatedly criticised the scale of Western aid to Kyiv and has promised to end the conflict swiftly, without explaining how. His victory in the Nov. 5 presidential election has spurred concerns in Kyiv and other European capitals about the degree of future U.S. commitment to helping Ukraine.
“Trump promised to settle the Ukrainian crisis overnight. OK, let’s get realistic – of course we understand that this will never happen,” said Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva. “But if he starts or suggests something to start the political process, it’s welcome.”
He added that any such negotiations needed to be based on what he called the “realities on the ground”, describing Ukraine as being on the back foot in the more-than-two-year conflict.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly said peace cannot be established until all Russian forces are expelled and all territory captured by Moscow, including Crimea, is returned. The “victory plan” he outlined last month maintained that provision, as well as an invitation for Ukraine to join NATO, long denounced by Russia.
Zelenskiy told European leaders in Budapest last week that concessions to Russia would be “unacceptable for Ukraine and suicidal for all Europe”.
Gatilov indicated Trump’s election represented a new possibility for dialogue with the United States, but a broader reset of relations was unlikely.
“Regardless of domestic political shifts, (Washington) consistently pursues a sense of containing Moscow … the change of administration does little to alter it,” he said.
“The only shift (that) might be possible is dialogue between our countries, something that has been lacking during the last several years,” he added.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Madeline Chambers, Miranda Murray and Alex Richardson)
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