𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Vladimir Putin has said that he is ready to meet with Donald Trump and discuss the war in Ukraine.

“We believe the current president’s statements about his readiness to work together. We are always open to this and ready for negotiations,” the Russian president said in an interview with state television.

“It would be better for us to meet, based on the realities of today, to talk calmly.”

“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 US, and various other participating countries.”

Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday said he agreed with US president Donald Trump’s claim that he would have stopped the war if he was in office in 2022.

“We always had a business-like, pragmatic but also trusting relationship with the current U.S. president,” Putin said in an interview with Russian state television, reported The Associated Press.

“I couldn’t disagree with him that if he had been president, if they hadn’t stolen victory from him in 2020, the crisis that emerged in Ukraine in 2022 could have been avoided.”

Trump made the statement in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that aired Thursday on Hannity’s program, claiming Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky shouldn’t have been “fighting a much bigger entity” because “we could have made a deal”.

“I could have made that deal so easily. And Zelensky decided: ‘I want to fight,’” he said.

The president’s contention that Zelensky decided to initiate hostilities against Russia is absolutely false.

Trump has been critical of US support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, and has said he could end the war in 24 hours if elected – although advisers concede it will likely take months if not longer.

He has suggested Ukraine may have to yield some of its territory if a peace deal is to be struck.

Trump and his pick for national security adviser, US Representative Michael Waltz, have criticized the Biden administration’s decision in November to allow Ukraine to use US-provided missiles to strike within Russian territory.

Trump has also said that under his presidency the US would fundamentally rethink Nato’s purpose and Nato’s mission.

While there is no fully fleshed-out Trump peace plan, most of his key aides favor taking NATO membership off the table for Ukraine as part of any peace agreement, at least for the foreseeable future. They also broadly support freezing the battle lines at their prevailing location.

The Russian economy has shown resilience during the three years of war in Ukraine and Western sanctions. However, as the war approaches its fourth year, the economy faces major challenges with key economic policymakers at odds on how to address them.

Below are the key challenges for the Russian economy in 2025:

• Russian annual inflation reached 9.5% in 2024, driven by high military and national security spending, which is set to account for 41% of total state budget spending in 2025, state subsidies on loans, and spiralling wage growth amid labour shortages.
• Inflation tops the list of economic woes in public opinion polls, with prices for staple foods such as butter, eggs, and vegetables showing double-digit growth last year.

• The government projects that economic growth rates will slow to 2.5% in 2025 from around 4% in 2024 as a result of measures to cool down the overheated economy, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects growth at 1.4% this year.
• The pro-government economic think tank TsMAKP estimated that many industrial sectors outside defence have been stagnating since 2023, raising prospects of stagflation, a combination of high inflation and economic stagnation.

• Russia’s budget deficit reached 1.7% of GDP in 2024, while the country’s National Wealth Fund, the main source of financing the deficit, has been depleted by two-thirds during three years of war.
• The government raised taxes to bring the deficit down to 0.5% of GDP in 2025, but its revenues could also fall due to the latest U.S. energy sanctions, which targeted Russia’s oil and gas sector.

The UK will explore the possibility of establishing military bases in Ukraine, according to a 100-year declaration signed between the two countries.

Signed alongside the 100-year Partnership Agreement last week, the declaration states the UK will work with Ukraine to identify common defence needs and expand the capabilities of both countries.

“The Participants will explore options for deploying and maintaining defence infrastructure in Ukraine, including military bases, logistics depots, reserve military equipment storage facilities and war reserve stockpiles,” the declaration reads.

“These facilities could be utilised to bolster their own defence capabilities in the event of a significant military threat.”

The possibility of military bases is only presented as a theoretical possibility, and no specifics of the placement of potential bases is laid out.

It is also unclear how Article 17 of the Ukrainian Constitution – which prohibits military bases on Ukrainian territory – may impact any future plans.

Russian president Vladimir Putin is trying to manipulate efforts by Donald Trump to secure a ceasefire, Volodymyr Zelensky warned.

Zelensky said the head of the foreign intelligence service reported to a meeting of Ukraine‘s military command about “Russia’s military potential and Putin’s readiness to continue the war and manipulate world leaders”.

“Specifically, he is trying to manipulate the US president’s desire to achieve peace,” he said in his nightly video address. “I am confident that no Russian manipulations will succeed any longer.”