Russia is close to achieving the set goals of an armed invasion of Ukraine, said Sergei Naryshkin, head of foreign intelligence on Tuesday. He said that “the strategic initiative on all sections of the front belongs to Russian soldiers.” Earlier, as noted by Reuters, US President-elect Donald Trump called on Russia and Ukraine to negotiate to end the war.
– The strategic initiative on all sectors (of the front – editor's note) belongs to us, we are close to achieving our goals – said the head of foreign intelligence, Sergei Naryshkin, to Russian journalists on Tuesday. He stated that “the Ukrainian armed forces are on the verge of collapse” and “the regime of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has completely lost its legitimacy and ability to negotiate.”
Reuters, which quoted Naryshkin, noted that he is currently “one of the few senior Russian officials who maintain relatively regular contacts with senior U.S. and Western officials.” “His views provide insight into the thinking at the highest levels of the Kremlin, which sees Western support for Ukraine as evidence that the United States is waging a proxy war against Russia aimed at overthrowing the authorities in Moscow,” Reuters described.
READ ALSO: Trump on the best thing that could happen to Russia, Ukraine, Iran and the fall of Assad
Earlier, as Reuters noted, the president-elect USA Donald Trump he called Russia and Ukraine to negotiate to end the war.
Sergei Naryshkin in a photo from 2022 kremlin.ru
In a Sunday post on his social media, Trump noted that the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky he would like to “make a deal and end this madness.” “Ukraine lost 400,000 soldiers and many more civilians,” he added. “There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin. Too many lives are being lost so senselessly, too many families destroyed, and if this continues, it could escalate into something much bigger and much worse,” Trump continued.
In response to Trump's appeals, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declared that Russia “is open to talks about Ukraine.” The Russian-language independent portal Meduza recalled that in June this year the president of Russia Vladimir Putin announced “conditions for ending hostilities in Ukraine”, demanding that the authorities in Kiev withdraw troops from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye oblasts, as well as resign from the country's membership in NATO. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Putin's words “an ultimatum that cannot be trusted.”
Reuters, Radio Svoboda, Meduza, The Moscow Times
Main photo source: mil.ru