Washington:
Donald Trump said on Monday he would speak to Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia's Vladimir Putin to end the 'carnage' of nearly three years of war, as the Kremlin leader hailed the Russian military's successes on the ground praised.
Both sides have rushed to gain an advantage on the battlefield before Trump enters the White House in January, and there is some alarm in Ukraine that the country will be forced to make territorial concessions in return for peace.
Trump has been highly critical of the billions of dollars in aid that Joe Biden's administration has provided to Kiev to fight Moscow's invasion.
He spoke Monday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida as Putin hailed his army's accelerated advance in Ukraine in what he called a “milestone year.”
“We will talk to President Putin, and we will talk to the representatives, Zelensky and representatives of Ukraine,” Trump said.
“We have to stop it, it is a massacre,” he added, referring to the war.
Trump has repeatedly claimed he could end the conflict quickly, but has provided no concrete details on how.
His comments on Monday come after he earlier this month called for an “immediate ceasefire” and said “negotiations must begin”.
Trump met Zelensky at a meeting hosted by French leader Emmanuel Macron in Paris this month, after which the Ukrainian leader said he had argued that Kiev is seeking “lasting” peace and “security guarantees.”
Poland, Ukraine's ally and neighbor, insisted on Monday that Kiev should not be “forced” into peace talks, with Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski saying it was “the aggressor and not the victim” who should be encouraged to do so and forced.
– Putin applauds Russian gains –
Ukraine is entering a new winter of war with its energy network already badly damaged by Russian attacks and Trump spoke as Russian troops were almost at the gates of the key eastern city of Pokrovsk.
Addressing top military generals at a year-end meeting on Monday, Putin struck a defiant and optimistic tone, claiming his forces had the upper hand across the entire front line.
The comments come as the Russian army is advancing through eastern Ukraine at the fastest pace since the first weeks of the offensive.
“Russian forces are firmly holding the strategic initiative along the entire line of contact,” Putin said.
He said the Russian army had captured 189 Ukrainian settlements this year and called 2024 a “landmark year in the realization of the objectives of the special military operation,” using Moscow's official language for his campaign.
Speaking after Putin at the same meeting, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said Russian forces had captured a total of almost 4,500 square kilometers (1,737 square miles) of Ukrainian territory this year and were now gaining about 30 square kilometers a day.
The Russian army said on Monday it had captured another small village in the Donetsk region as part of its latest advance.
AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War showed that Russian troops advanced in November at their fastest pace since March 2022 – the first full month of the offensive.
– 'Dangerous expansion' –
Putin has been accused by Kiev and the West of escalating the nearly three-year conflict in recent weeks.
On Monday, 10 countries and the EU called North Korea's growing involvement in the conflict a “dangerous extension” of fighting “with serious consequences for European and Indo-Pacific security.”
The foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Great Britain, the United States and the High Representative of the European Union signed the release.
The attack came after Ukraine said it had killed or wounded at least 30 North Korean troops fighting alongside Russian soldiers in the Kursk border area, where Kiev is mounting an offensive.
The United States, South Korea and Ukraine have accused the North of sending more than 10,000 soldiers to support Russia.
Putin on Monday also defended Russia's massive defense and security spending on the conflict, amid rising economic uncertainty at home.
Military expenditure has exceeded six percent of GDP, while total defense and security expenditure is almost nine percent.
“It is, strangely enough, not the largest expenditure in the world, even among countries that do not have any armed conflict,” said Putin, a former KGB spy who has been in power for the past quarter century.
“Still, it's a lot of money, and we have to use it very rationally,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)