Putin says Ukrainian ‘crisis’ could have been avoided if Trump ‘had not been deprived of election win’ and says he is ‘ready’ to discuss the war with the president

Vladimir Putin today declared that the war in Ukraine could have been averted had Donald Trump not been ‘robbed of the election’ in 2020. 

Describing his armed forces’ full-scale invasion of their neighbour in February 2022 as a ‘crisis’, Putin told state media the horrific bloodshed that has blighted eastern Europe for almost three years would not have happened under a Trump presidency.

‘I cannot but agree with him that if he had been president, if his victory had not been stolen from him in 2020, then perhaps there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that arose in 2022,’ the Russian president said.

His comments came as part of a wide-ranging interview in which the Kremlin chief heaped praise on the newly inaugurated US president, labelling Trump ‘smart and pragmatic’ while also signalling a willingness to approach the negotiating table over Ukraine. 

‘He is not only a smart person, but a pragmatic person,’ Putin told state media of his American counterpart.

‘I have a hard time imagining there will be decisions taken that are detrimental to the American economy.

‘As for the issue of negotiations… we have always said, and I want to emphasise this once again, that we are ready for these negotiations on Ukrainian issues.’

But Putin’s statement belies comments made by his own Foreign Ministry just hours ago which railed against the ongoing supply of Western arms to Ukraine’s armed forces and what it called the ‘illegitimate Kyiv regime’. 

‘Despite the increasingly loud talk about the need for peace talks, no practical actions indicating a real readiness for them on the part of Kyiv and the West are objectively observed,’ the statement read. 

‘The issue of the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government is not being resolved.’ 

Kyiv was unsurprisingly quick to respond, with President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office issuing a tight-lipped statement that there could be no peace talks between Putin and Trump without the participation of European representatives.  

Trump famously claimed following the outbreak of full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine during the Biden administration that he would be able to ‘end the war’ in 24 hours if he had been president.

Now almost a week into his second presidency, the conflict appears no closer to its conclusion, with observers expecting the Trump administration to effectively strong-arm both parties into signing a peace deal.   

On Wednesday, Trump warned his Russian counterpart that he would face taxes, tariffs and sanctions if Russia did not sign up to a deal to end the war in Ukraine.

The US president has previously warned that he could intensify the supply of arms to Ukraine if Moscow does not come to the negotiating table.

Delivering the threat on his Truth Social platform, the president wrote: ‘If we don’t make a “deal,” and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States.

But Trump’s advisers have also hinted the steady stream of Western military aid to Ukraine could be shut off if Kyiv refuses to countenance a deal.

In a somewhat inflammatory statement about the Ukrainian leader, Trump recently said Zelensky was ‘no angel’ and insisted he ‘shouldn’t have allowed this war to happen’.

‘First of all, he’s fighting a much bigger entity, okay, much bigger. When he was, you know, talking so brave… Zelensky was fighting a much bigger entity, much bigger, much more powerful,’ Trump said.

‘He shouldn’t have done that, because we could have made a deal, and it would have been a deal… it would have been a nothing deal. I could have made that deal so easily,’ Trump said. 

‘But Zelensky decided “I want to fight”.’

However, leading political scientists and geopolitics analysts doubt the capacity of Trump and his entourage to bring the war to an end even within 100 days – a goal believed to have been set for Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg. 

Many argue that Russia’s upper hand on the battlefield and its efforts to build stronger economic and political ties with other powers in the face of the West’s sanctions mean that Kremlin is coming to the negotiating table with a strong hand of cards. 

Renowned political scientist and proponent of the realist philosophy of great power politics John Mearsheimer said earlier this week: ‘The Russians are in the driver’s seat. The Russians, for good strategic reasons from their perspective, are driving a hard bargain.

‘It’s almost impossible for me to see President Trump accepting the terms that the Russians demand.’