President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia would be ready to talk to Ukraine, the United States and Europe about Ukraine’s future if they wanted, but that Moscow would defend its national interests, Reuters reported.

Putin, whose troops invaded Ukraine in 2022, has repeatedly said he is ready to talk peace, although Western officials say he is waiting for the U.S. presidential election in November before making any real efforts.

“In Ukraine, those who are aggressive towards Russia, and in Europe, and in the USA – do they want to negotiate? Let them. But we will do it based on our national interests,” Putin said at a meeting of the defense leadership in Moscow.

“We will not give up what is ours,” Putin said, adding that Russia has no intention of going to war with Europe.

Russia controls about 17.5 percent of the territory that was internationally recognized as part of Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and last year declared four additional regions of Ukraine partially controlled by its forces as part of Russia. Kyiv says it will not rest until the last Russian soldier is expelled from Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin is waiting for talks with Trump – the president of the Czech Republic

The president of the Czech Republic, retired general Petr Pavel, says that Vladimir Putin is waiting for the results of the presidential election in the United States, hoping to reach an agreement with Donald Trump on ending the war in Ukraine without the participation of any European country.

“President Putin has made it absolutely clear that there can be no peace talks until after the elections in the United States. In this way, he clearly made it clear that for him, the partner for possible negotiations is none other than the USA and not any of the important European countries,” Pavel said in an interview with the Czech newspaper Seznam Zpravy.

The Prague leader warned that if Donald Trump becomes US president again, Putin may try to negotiate with him, “regardless of what Ukraine or the rest of Europe thinks about it.”

Petro also noted that such talks between Putin and Trump could lead to “some kind of compromise that theoretically returns Russia to the status of a key player, and the others will somehow have to find a way to accept it.”

Putin says that Russia’s nuclear arsenal is almost completely modernized

Putin spoke at a meeting at the Ministry of Defense, which was attended by military leaders, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov, as well as Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Oleksandr Bortnikov.

Russian troops, Putin said, now have the initiative on the battlefield.

“We will not abandon the goals of the special military operation,” Putin said, although he added that Russia needed better military communications, intelligence, targeting and satellite capabilities.

He said Russia’s defense industry had reacted faster than the West and said Russia would continue to improve its nuclear forces and maintain a high level of combat readiness.

Since February 2022, the production of tanks in Russia has increased by 5.6 times, unmanned aerial vehicles – by 16.8 times, and artillery shells – by 17.5 times, Soigu said.

According to him, in 2023, Russia took 490,000 contract servicemen and volunteers. Next year, Russia will try to increase the number of contractors to 745,000 people.

According to Shoigu, Russian troops laid 7,000 square kilometers of minefields, 1.5 million anti-tank barriers and 2,000 kilometers of anti-tank ditches in Ukraine.

The role of Russia’s air, sea and land nuclear arsenal in ensuring the balance of power has “significantly increased” in the context of “the emergence of new military and political risks,” Putin said.

This year, the share of modern weapons in the nuclear forces “increased to 95%, and the naval component – to almost 100%,” Putin said.

“We do what we think is necessary, what we want” on the battlefield, he also said, assuring that Ukraine “suffers great losses and has mostly wasted its reserves.”

Putin said that Ukraine’s accession to NATO is “unacceptable for Russia in 10 years, not 20.”

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