UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the Ukraine war will end faster once Donald Trump becomes the US president.
The comments come after Zelenksy called Trump to congratulate him on his sweeping victory in the US election.
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Speaking to Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne, Zelensky said: “It is certain that the war will end sooner with the policies of the team that will now lead the White House.
“This is their approach, their promise to their citizens.”
Zelensky added that Ukraine “must do everything to ensure that the war ends next year through diplomatic means.”
Trump had previously said that he would end the Ukraine war in 24 hours.
His unconfirmed plan sees a demilitarised zone down the locked front line as well as Kyiv agreeing not to join NATO for 20 years.
In exchange, the US would hypothetically continue to arm Ukraine to the teeth to prevent Putin from invading again.
However, the US would not send troops to enforce the buffer zone nor finance the mission.
A member of the Trump team told the Wall Street Journal: “We are not sending American men and women to uphold peace in Ukraine.
“And we are not paying for it. Get the Poles, Germans, British and French to do it.”
It follows after Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Trump on his historic election win and said Moscow is ready to talk over resolving the conflict.
Speaking at the Valdai discussion club in Sochi on Thursday, he said: “I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate him on his election as president of the United States of America.”
But analysts from the Institute for the Study of War say bullish Putin is already dictating hardline terms for a deal as his forces continue to gain ground.
The group said: “The manner in which the Kremlin is trying to set its terms for negotiations strongly signals that Russia’s objectives remain unchanged and still amount to full Ukrainian capitulation.
“The Kremlin does not appear any more willing to make concessions to the incoming Trump administration than it was to the current administration.”
Embattled Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky – who has vowed not to hand over an inch to tyrant Putin – looks likely to give ground in return for security guarantees.
Peace terms speculated so far include a freeze on the frontlines and a deal to end the war if Ukraine agrees never to join the NATO western alliance.
However, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned ominously that no peace talks will be held until the West stops giving Ukraine weapons.
And Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov also claimed that the start of Trump’s presidency would change little – and shunned suggestions that current frontlines could be frozen.
The war think tank’s analysts concluded: “Lavrov’s pre-emptive rejection of the potential suggestion to freeze the current frontline indicates that Russia is not interested in softening its approach.
“Zakharova’s and Lavrov’s statements also undermine Putin’s recent efforts to feign interest in a willingness to ‘restore’ US–Russian relations with the new US president.
“Putin likely is taking for granted that the Trump administration will defer to the Kremlin’s interests and preferences without the Kremlin offering any concessions in return.”
North Korean troops will FLEE Putin’s army when they reach the frontlines
By James Halpin
A NORTH Korean defector has claimed entire units of North Korean troops fighting for Putin would desert as soon as they got to the front lines.
Hyun-Seung Lee, a soldier in the Kim army in the early 2000s, says the troops in Russia will be looking to escape the battle in Ukraine “from the beginning”.
He believes the troops are not ready for the frontline and will be used as “human shields” by Russian soldiers.
Kim Jong-un has sent his Storm Corps, the country’s equivalent of special forces, to fight for Vlad as his war continues to stall.
The 10,000-strong force is set to be used on the battlefield in the coming days as the Russian tyrant looks to claw back Kursk.
Questions have been raised about how well the Korean soldiers will fight having not seen combat since the Vietnam War and with the units armed, clothed, and run by the Russians.
Lee told The Sun the soldiers in North Korea will have been forced to go and they will be young, so they won’t be that committed to the fighting.
He said: “It will be individuals at first, but more like as time passes, I think there’ll be like a larger number of group defections, including officers.”
That’s because, Lee says, the Russians will likely treat them as “expendable” and even more poorly than their own troops.
He said: “Russian soldiers don’t respect them as their fellow warriors.
“They will treat them as their human shields.”
Eventually, the North Koreans will realise the hierarchy and how they are being seen as “disposable” by the Russians and look to flee, Lee said.
He added: “I think they’ll die without any impact.
“Putin and Kim Jong-un would expect more from them… they won’t get the expected results.”
But North Korean soldiers could be thinking twice about defecting as it could see their families thrown in prison.
Pyongyang has a guilty by association policy; if the North’s soldiers are seen defecting by colleagues their families could be put in jail.
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