Donald Trump promises to meet with Putin after he is sworn in

US President-elect Donald Trump is promising an imminent meeting with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin to end Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. A meeting could take place after his inauguration on January 20, the Republican said at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, when asked by a reporter when he expected a meeting to discuss the situation in Ukraine. He couldn’t say the exact date. “But I know that Putin would like to meet.”

Trump also expressed the hope that the war would be over within six months. “I hope long before six months are over,” he said. Trump regularly boasts about his good contacts with Putin. During the presidential election campaign, he repeatedly claimed that he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, if possible before he took office. He didn’t say how.

There is great fear in Ukraine that Trump, after being sworn in, could drastically reduce US military aid to the country attacked by Russia and thus cause Kiev a defeat. The USA is still Ukraine’s most important supporter and largest arms supplier. There are also fears in many EU states that Trump could enforce an unbalanced ceasefire agreement that could effectively make Russia and Putin appear to be the victors of the war of aggression.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky once again pushed for greater progress in European Union accession talks. “This year should be as successful in the negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU as Ukraine and thus the security of our entire Europe need,” said the head of state in his evening video speech. He sees the EU Council Presidency held by Poland in the first half of the year and then Denmark in the second as a favorable circumstance. Both states are “responsible partners”. Kyiv will do everything necessary to take the right steps.

According to unconfirmed reports, the situation for Ukrainian troops in the Donetsk region continues to deteriorate. In the Lyman sector of the front, Russian units are said to have broken through the front line near the village of Ivanivka and are advancing on the village of Kolodjazi. The Ukrainian General Staff wrote in its report on Tuesday that fighting in the area was intensifying. Russian attacks near Ivanivka were confirmed. However, the attacks were largely repelled.

Meanwhile, the pro-government Ukrainian military channel Deep State confirmed the capture of the strategically important small town of Kurakhove in the east of the attacked country by Russian troops. Almost the entire city in the Donetsk region is occupied by Russian forces, which offers them the opportunity to advance west, the military experts wrote on Telegram. On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had taken the city. There was no confirmation of this from the Ukrainian side.

The fighting for Kurachowe lasted around two months. Of the once 18,000 residents, only a fraction remained behind. After the heavy fighting, much of the town is now just a pile of rubble. Moscow’s losses are considered high.

In the eastern Ukrainian mining town of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, which is threatened by Russian conquest, only a fraction of the original population of over 60,000 remains. According to the city’s military administration, there are just over 7,000 people left in the city. Given the security situation, a supply of drinking and industrial water and services such as garbage collection can only be provided in a few parts of the community.

Russian troops have approached Pokrovsk itself from the south and southwest to within a few kilometers. Military observers assume that there is an attempt to bypass the Ukrainian defensive positions built around the city. Near Pokrovsk, the last Ukrainian coal mine for coke production, which is important for steel production, is in danger of coming under Russian control.

The Ukrainian government received more than eleven million applications for the payment of 1,000 hryvnia winter aid. “Over eight million Ukrainians have already received these,” wrote Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal on Telegram. Only Ukrainians in the country can apply for winter aid worth the equivalent of just over 22 euros. The government assumes that only around 32 million people live in the non-Russian-controlled part of the country.

Shmyhal also announced a tax-free payment of 1,000 hryvnia per month to all teachers. From September this amount is to be doubled. In January, internally displaced people will also receive rental subsidies. The chairwoman of the presidential Servant of the People party, Olena Schuljak, recently put the number at a good four million.

The government has recently come under criticism for providing little support to internally displaced people, which, according to unconfirmed reports, has already resulted in tens of thousands returning to Russian-occupied regions where they at least have a roof over their heads.

A good half of the Ukrainian state budget is financed primarily by loans from abroad. Last year, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance, this aid amounted to the equivalent of more than 41 billion euros. According to statistics from the International Monetary Fund, the Eastern European state was already the poorest country in Europe in terms of per capita income before the Russian invasion.

With Western help, Ukraine has been fending off Russian invasion for almost three years.

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