Ready to discuss possibility of reaching compromise in talks with US President-elect Trump: Putin on Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin while speaking at his annual end-of-the-year news conference said that he was ready to discuss the possibility of reaching a compromise in talks with US President-elect Donald Trump on the issue of Ukraine, Al Jazeera reported.

He expressed his readiness to meet Trump at “any time”. “I don’t know when I’m going to see him. He isn’t saying anything about it. I haven’t talked to him in more than four years. I am ready for it, of course. Any time,” Al Jazeera quoted Putin as saying.

Putin also hailed the ‘invincibility’ of the “Oreshnik” hypersonic missile which Russia has already test-fired at a Ukrainian military factory, saying he was ready to organise another launch at Ukraine and see if Western air defence systems could shoot it down.

“Let them determine some target for destruction, say in Kyiv, concentrate all their air defence and missile defence forces there, and we will strike there with Oreshnik and see what happens,” Al Jazeera quoted Putin.

“We are ready for such an experiment, but is the other side ready?” he said.

Earlier, Putin congratulated Donald Trump on winning the US presidential poll and said that Moscow is ready to have dialogue with the Republican president-elect.

“I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate him on his victory in the US presidential election. I have already said that we will work with any head of state who is trusted by the American people,” Putin said while addressing the plenary session of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi on November 7.

As per Al Jazeera, these were the first public remarks from Putin since Trump’s victory. He had also praised Trump for displaying courage during the assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 14.

“He behaved, in my opinion, in a very correct way – courageously, like a real man,” Putin said in his address at the Valdai discussion club, Al Jazeera reported.