Ukraine captures North Korean soldiers; Russia readies for talks with Trump

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Russia appeared to ready itself for talks on the future of Ukraine with United States President-elect Donald Trump ahead of his swearing-in on Monday.

“No special conditions are needed for this. What is required is the mutual intent and political will to have a dialogue,” said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Saturday.

But Russia expressed its parameters very quickly.

Putin aide Nikolai Patrushev told Russian news outlet KP that a Ukraine settlement should be reached by the US and Russia, without Ukraine and without the European Union.

Asked whether territorial concessions would be made, he said “This is not even up for discussion.”

Moscow appears confident that Trump’s world view is similar to its own and conducive to a deal that sidelines Europe.

Patrushev drew a parallel between Moscow’s land grab in Ukraine and Trump’s assertion in a January 7 press conference that the US should absorb Greenland and resume control of Panama, saying “we need them for economic security.”

Trump also posted a map of the US and Canada as one country, calling their border an “artificially drawn line” and their union “much better for national security” – arguments identical to those used by the Kremlin to wage war on Ukraine.

“Trump outlined his interests in relation to Greenland, the Panama Canal, Mexico, and Canada,” Patrushev said. “Redrawing the world map to suit his interests and interfering in the affairs of countries on different continents is an American tradition.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also painted the views of Russia and the incoming US administration as aligned. He advised Trump to listen to the wishes of the people of Greenland, just as Russia – he said – listened to the people it annexed in 2022.

“I believe that, first and foremost, we need to hear from the Greenlandic people,” Lavrov told a press conference in Moscow on Tuesday.

“This is similar to how we – as neighbours of other islands, peninsulas, and territories – listened to the residents of Crimea, Donbas, and Novorossiya to understand their stance on the regime that had seized power through an unlawful coup.”Moscow holds that the 2014 Maidan uprising that unseated then-President Viktor Yanukovych was a US-orchestrated coup.

Novorossiya was the term Catherine the Great used in the late 18th century to refer to newly conquered territories that now form part of Ukraine. Moscow annexed Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson in September 2022 following unsupervised referendums.

Moscow’s official view of the Ukraine conflict is that it is first and foremost about Russian security, dismissing Ukraine’s territorial integrity and right to self-determination as irrelevant.

Trump’s election confirms the legitimacy of the Russian view, Lavrov said.

“Everyone has long understood this, but now they are starting to acknowledge it: This is not about Ukraine itself but about Ukraine being used as a tool to weaken Russia’s position in the European security framework,” he said.

“Naturally, threats on our western flank, along our borders, must be neutralized.”

Global backing for a possible Putin-Trump deal

A new global survey of public opinion suggests that a deal between Putin and Trump might win the backing of at least certain influential countries.

In the survey released on Wednesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations, majorities in India, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China and Brazil saw Trump’s election as a good thing for their countries and for peace in the world.

Majorities in India, China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey and Brazil saw Russia as an ally or necessary partner for their respective countries, and believed its influence in world affairs would not diminish or might even grow.

Majorities in Ukraine, the UK and EU stood out in the survey for holding the opposite views.

As Russia, Europe, Ukraine and much of the rest of the world hung on Trump’s lips, the war in Ukraine raged with unabated ferocity.

Fighting intensified in the Russian region of Kursk, which Ukraine counter-invaded last August.

“Assaults are taking place every day, continuously throughout the day and night,” Stanislav Krasnov, a platoon commander of Ukraine’s 95th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade, told Armyinform TV.

Ukraine captures North Korean troops

Ukrainian forces captured their first North Korean prisoner of war in Kursk on January 9, followed by a second on Saturday, putting beyond doubt the use of North Korean soldiers by the Russian military.

Ukraine released footage of the first capture by Ukraine’s 84th Tactical Group.

The 20-year-old rifleman carried a Russian-issued ID card from the Russian federated Republic of Tuva – further signals that Moscow had tried to hide its use of North Koreans.

Ukrainian paratroopers caught the second man, a 26-year-old reconnaissance sniper.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/15/moscow-hopes-for-talks-with-trump-that-sideline-ukraine-and-europe