Kremlin says Putin is ready to talk to Trump and is waiting for word from Washington

Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to hold a phone discussion with US President Donald Trump, and Moscow is waiting for word from Washington DC that it is also ready, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

Trump said on Thursday he wanted to meet Putin as soon as possible to secure an end to the war with Ukraine, and expressed his desire to work towards cutting nuclear arms, something the Kremlin said Putin had also made clear he wanted.

When asked if Putin and Trump would use this weekend for their first phone call since Trump's inauguration — an essential precursor before a face-to-face meeting for deeper talks — Peskov said: “Putin is ready. We are waiting for signals (from Washington). Everyone is ready. It is difficult to read the coffee grounds here. As soon as there is something, if there is something, we will inform you.”

Trump, who on Thursday was addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos via video link, said he wanted to work towards cutting nuclear arms, adding he thought Russia and China might support reducing their own weapons capabilities.

“We'd like to see denuclearisation, and I will tell you President Putin really liked the idea of cutting way back on nuclear. I think the rest of the world, we would have got them to follow, and China would have come along too,” Trump said.

Peskov said Putin had made it clear he wanted to resume nuclear disarmament negotiations as soon as possible, but said such talks would need to be wider than in the past to cover other countries' nuclear arsenals, including those of France and Britain.

“There is something to talk about, we need to talk. Time has been lost in many respects. We have spoken about such interest before so the ball is in the court of the US, which has stopped all substantive contacts with our country,” said Peskov.

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New Start, which caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads the US and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them, is due to run out on February 5 2026.

It is the last remaining pillar of nuclear arms control between the world's two biggest nuclear powers.

Commenting on Trump's Davos demand for Opec and Saudi Arabia to lower the oil price and the idea that lower prices could speed the end of the Ukraine war, Peskov said: “No. This conflict does not depend on oil prices. This conflict is happening because of the threat to the Russian Federation's national security, because of the threat to Russians who live in well-known territories, and because of the complete refusal of the Americans and Europeans to listen to Russia's concerns. It has nothing to do with oil prices.”

By “well-known territories” Peskov meant parts of eastern Ukraine that Russia has captured since the start of the war and claimed as its own, in actions most countries at the UN have condemned as illegal.

Peskov also took issue with Trump's assertion that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was ready to strike a peace deal, pointing out that Zelensky had, in a 2022 decree, ruled out any negotiations with Putin.

“To reach a settlement, it is necessary to hold negotiations. [But] Zelensky has banned himself from conducting in his own decree.”

Zelensky said this week that at least 200,000 European peacekeepers would be needed to prevent a new Russian attack on Ukraine after any ceasefire deal.