Russia appears ready to hold talks on Ukraine's future before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in on Monday.
"This does not require special conditions. What is needed is a common will and political will to have a dialogue," Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday.
But Russia was quick to express its own parameters.
Putin aide Nikolay Patrushev told Russian news outlet KP that a solution to the Ukrainian problem should be reached by the United States and Russia without the involvement of Ukraine and the European Union.
Asked whether territorial concessions would be made, he said "it's not even on the table".
Moscow appears to believe that Trump’s worldview is similar to its own and that it would be conducive to a deal that excludes Europe.
Patrushev drew an analogy between Moscow's land grab in Ukraine and Trump's advocacy during a Jan. 7 news conference that the United States should annex Greenland and resume control of Panama, saying "we need them to secure the economy." Safety".
Trump also released a map of the United States and Canada as one country, saying their border was an "artificial line" and that their alliance was "better for national security" - an argument that echoes the Kremlin's stance on Ukraine The same arguments used when waging war.
"Trump outlined his interest in Greenland, the Panama Canal, Mexico and Canada," Patrushev said. “It is an American tradition to redraw the map of the world to suit its own interests and to interfere in the affairs of countries on different continents.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also stated that Russia and the incoming US government share the same views. He suggested that Trump listen to the wishes of the people of Greenland, just as he said Russia listens to the wishes of the people it annexes in 2022.
"I think, first of all, we need to listen to the people of Greenland," Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday.
“This is similar to how we, as neighbors to other islands, peninsulas and territories, listen to the residents of Crimea, Donbass and New Russia to understand their position against regimes that seized power through illegal coups.”
Moscow believes that the 2014 Maidan uprising that led to the ouster of then-President Yanukovych was a coup orchestrated by the United States.
"Novorossiya" was a term used by Catherine the Great in the late 18th century to refer to newly conquered territories that are now part of Ukraine. Moscow annexed Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson in September 2022 following an unsupervised referendum.
Moscow's official view on the conflict in Ukraine is that it concerns Russia's security first and foremost, and that Ukraine's territorial integrity and right to self-determination are irrelevant.
Lavrov said Trump's election confirmed the legitimacy of Russia's views.
"Everyone has known this for a long time, but now they are starting to admit it: this is not about Ukraine per se, but that Ukraine is being used as a tool to weaken Russia's position in the European security framework," he said.
"Of course, the threats on our western flank and along the border must be neutralized."
Global support for possible Putin-Trump deal
A new global poll suggests a deal between Putin and Trump is likely to win support among at least some influential countries.
Majorities in India, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China and Brazil believe Trump's election would be a good thing for their countries and world peace, in a survey released Wednesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Majorities in India, China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey and Brazil view Russia as an ally or necessary partner of their respective countries and believe that its influence in world affairs will not diminish and may even increase.
Majorities in Ukraine, the UK and the EU stood out in the survey for holding opposite views.
While Russia, Europe, Ukraine and much of the rest of the world are on Trump's lips, the war in Ukraine is intensifying.
Fighting has intensified in Russia's Kursk region, where Ukraine counterattacked last August.
Stanislav Krasnov, platoon leader of Ukraine's 95th Independent Airborne Assault Brigade, told Armyinform TV: "Attacks happen every day, day and night."
Ukraine captures North Korean troops
The Ukrainian army captured the first North Korean prisoner of war in Kursk on January 9 and captured the second on Saturday, proving beyond doubt that the Russian army uses North Korean soldiers.
Ukraine has released footage captured for the first time by the Ukrainian 84th Tactical Group.
The 20-year-old rifleman carried a Russian ID card issued by the Russian Federation's Republic of Tuva, a further sign of Moscow's attempts to conceal its use of North Koreans.
Ukrainian paratroopers captured a second man, a 26-year-old scout sniper.
"It will not be easy. Other North Korean soldiers and Russians have been trying to eliminate injured North Koreans, especially to prevent them from being captured," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed in an evening address on Saturday.
Zelensky releases video of Ukrainian interrogation of prisoners.
The rifleman appeared to say he was told he was going to participate in a training exercise. When asked if he wanted to return to North Korea, he could be heard saying: "I want to live in Ukraine."
Zelensky suggested that North Koreans could be given an amnesty for living in Ukraine if they supported it.
"There may be other ways for those North Korean soldiers who do not want to return. Especially those South Koreans who express their hope to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about the war in Korean will be given such an opportunity," he said.
Major Anton Zakharchuk of the Ukrainian 95th Air Mobility Battalion in Kursk claimed that the North Korean soldier apparently committed suicide under unified orders to avoid capture.
"We try to identify them through aerial reconnaissance, they are hidden in trenches or caves and when we get close we hear explosions," he said.
He also said Russian forces allowed the North Koreans to launch the first wave of attacks, using them as human shields.
At one point, the 6th Ranger Regiment operating in Kursk reported, a North Korean soldier tried to draw them to his position, hoping to blow them up with him with a grenade.
The regiment wrote that the North Korean militant tried to mislead the soldiers "and blew himself up with a grenade." When rangers approached him, "he blew himself up," the statement added.
Al Jazeera could not independently confirm these claims.
Zelensky said in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron that 4,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded - about a third of the original number sent to Kursk on a combat mission in mid-December. one.
Russia says it will shoot down thousands of Ukrainian drones in 2024
Meanwhile, Ukraine this week stepped up its in-depth attacks on Russian infrastructure.
Russia's state news agency TASS reported on Tuesday a massive aerial drone operation. According to reports, Russia shot down 16 drones in the Tula region, 14 in the Rostov region, 17 in the Orel region, and several drones in the Voronezh region at night.
Ukraine's General Staff said its operation hit the Kombinat Kristal oil storage facility in Engels "after a fire that had lasted for five days after the previous attack had just been extinguished" - referring to the January 8 attack.
The General Staff also reported a successful strike on the Bryansk chemical plant in the city of Seltso, which was described as a "strategic installation of the Russian military-industrial complex... artillery ammunition, multiple launch rocket systems, aviation, engineering Ammunition and components of the Kh-59 cruise missile were manufactured here. A secondary explosion was observed within the premises of the factory and lasted for several hours."
Staff said the Saratov refinery and the Kazanorgsintez plant were also hit.
Earlier on Saturday, Ukraine used drones to attack Russian compressors in the Krasnodar Krai region that serve the Türkiye Stream pipeline, Russia's state news agency TASS said. Ukraine reportedly used nine drones in the attack on the village of Gekozor. The Russian Defense Ministry said it shot down all nine aircraft.
TurkStream is Russia's only functioning natural gas pipeline to Europe after Nord Stream was damaged in 2022 and the Yamal pipeline through Ukraine was shut down on January 1 after its contract with Russian energy company Gazprom ended.
Ukraine has made no secret of its desire for Western countries to stop importing Russian energy.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Vladyslav Vlasiuk told EU ambassadors in Kyiv on Monday that Ukraine was troubled by last year's liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, which it believed were worth $7.3 billion. “It’s time to cut off the flow of petrodollars that fuel Russian aggression,” he said.
Ukraine is also frustrated by slow or inadequate deliveries of long-range weapons, which has allowed it to take the fight to Russian soil and increasingly invest in its own weapons production.
According to TASS statistics, the number of Ukrainian drones shot down by Russia last year reached 7,300. Zelensky on Saturday asked his manufacturers to "make this a record year for all types of drones."
The day before, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmihal told the Verkhovna Rada that by 2025, arms spending will increase to a record $17.5 billion and domestic industrial production capacity will reach $30 billion. It is believed to reach $7 billion by 2024.
Ukraine is also fighting for control of its airspace.
The Ukrainian Air Force stated that it shot down 400 aerial targets during the week from January 6 to 12, almost all of which were drones of different types. Zelensky said Russia launched 600 drones that week.
