By Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) - The Kremlin on Friday said it agreed with US President-elect Donald Trump’s remarks about the dangers of Ukrainian strikes deep into Russia using American-made long-range weapons.
“The statement itself completely coincides with our position. That is, in this case, we have the same vision of the reasons for the escalation. And, of course, we like this. It is obvious that Trump understands that it is escalating the situation around the conflict,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow.
Peskov said it is not worth trying to predict what kind of actions will be taken by the US in this regard following Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, expressing that Moscow will wait until the US president-elect officially takes office.
“Time will tell, we will wait until the moment when the elected president takes his place in the Oval Office,” the spokesman said.
Commenting on hopes for a quick peaceful settlement to the Russia-Ukraine war, Peskov again argued to wait for the steps the US will take following Trump’s inauguration, recalling the “unfriendly” step taken against Moscow during his first term in office.
He further said the idea of deploying troops to Ukraine from European countries to monitor a potential cease-fire is something that should be discussed during the peace talks.
Peskov went on to reaffirm that Russia is open to negotiations with Ukraine based on agreements reached during talks in Istanbul in April 2022, but that there still are no prerequisites for such talks, because the Ukrainian side is “avoiding them and excluding them.”
On Thursday, Trump said in an interview with Time magazine that he “very vehemently” disagrees with the long-range strikes deep into Russia, arguing that this is escalating the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and is “making it worse.”
“That should not have been allowed to be done. Now they're doing not only missiles, but they're doing other types of weapons. And I think that's a very big mistake, very big mistake,” Trump said.
Washington had previously delivered ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles to Kyiv, but prevented the Ukrainian military from using them to strike targets deep inside Russia.
Last month, the White House publicly acknowledged easing restrictions over Kyiv's use of US-supplied longer-range missiles, allowing Ukrainian forces to strike targets deeper inside Russia.