Putin has a history of making positive remarks about Trump, and in 2022 the incoming president described the Russian leader’s invasion of Ukraine as “genius” and “savvy”.
Mutual admiration: Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at the G20 Summit in Hamburg in 2017.Credit: AP
After President Joe Biden gave approval to Kyiv to use American long-range ATACMS missiles against targets on Russian territory this month, key Trump allies accused Biden of seeking to spark “world war three” before Trump’s presidential inauguration in January.
Putin reiterated terms set out in June that Russia would end the war in Ukraine if Kyiv agreed to abandon its NATO ambitions and hand over four provinces claimed by Moscow – a deal Kyiv has rejected as tantamount to surrender.
He is reportedly hoping that Trump will attempt to broker a peace deal with Ukraine that will cement Russian territorial gains when the former president re-enters the White House in January.
In the meantime, he increased the pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to surrender.
“We do not rule out the use of Oreshnik [missiles] against the military, military-industrial facilities or decision-making centres, including in Kyiv,” Putin said.
Loading
He added that the Oreshnik missile Moscow first deployed last week in a strike on Dnipro could destroy even highly protected underground sites and that Russia had commenced its serial production.
Putin boasted at the press conference that the impact of the missile was “powerful, like a meteorite falling”, and comparable in strength to a nuclear strike when used several times at once.
Zelensky said his Russian counterpart was seeking to disrupt Trump’s efforts to bring the conflict to an end.
“Putin wants to escalate the situation now so that President Trump fails so that he cannot end the war,” Zelensky shared in a post on Telegram, adding that the Russian president voiced “his readiness to kill and destroy” at his press conference.
He said Putin was responsible for the war and “the only one who believes in war”.
“That is why Putin’s escalation now serves as a pressure to later force the American president to accept Russia’s terms,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky said Russia used cruise missiles with cluster munitions in the overnight attack, which cut power to more than 1 million people, something he called a “despicable escalation”.