Moscow: Donald Trump, who won the US presidential election, allegedly had a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, the Washington Post claims citing sources.
On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the readiness for contacts with Trump remained, which was emphasized by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, but there were no specifics.
There was no official confirmation of the Washington Post’s report.
The newspaper claims that Trump had called for not escalating the conflict in Ukraine and allegedly expressed interest in subsequent conversations to discuss a speedy resolution to the Ukrainian conflict.
Trump has privately signaled that he would support a peace deal in which Russia would retain some territories, the publication claimed.
Earlier, Trump’s senior adviser and Republican Party strategist Bryan Lanza said that the United States under the new Trump administration would not support Kiev in its desire to “return Crimea;” this is an unrealistic position, since Crimea is lost to Ukraine, and Washington’s priority would be to end the conflict.
Crimea became a Russian region in March 2014 following a referendum held after the coup in Ukraine. In the referendum, 96.77% of voters in Crimea and 95.6% in Sevastopol voted to join Russia. Ukraine still considers Crimea to be its temporarily occupied territory, and Western countries supporting Kiev on this issue. The Russian leadership has repeatedly stated that the residents of Crimea had voted to reunite with Russia democratically, in full compliance with international law and the UN Charter. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Crimea issue is “closed once and for all.”
Earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported citing sources that Trump’s team had allegedly proposed freezing the conflict in Ukraine, creating a demilitarized zone along the front line, and new arms supplies in exchange for Kiev’s promise not to join NATO temporarily. The publication did not specify who exactly would maintain security in the demilitarized zone, but one of the its sources ruled out that it could be the US military or UN peacekeepers.
In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin put forward initiatives for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine: Moscow will immediately cease fire and declare its readiness for negotiations after the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the territory of new regions of Russia. In addition, the Russian leader added, Kiev must declare its renunciation of its intentions to join NATO, it must also carry out demilitarization and denazification, and also adopt a neutral, non-aligned and non-nuclear status. Putin also mentioned the lifting of sanctions against Russia in this context.
