Putin praises White House ahead of summit, hopes to extend remaining nuclear treaty with U.S.

CBC

a day ago

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the U.S. administration was making "sincere efforts" to resolve the conflict in Ukraine and suggested Moscow and Washington could reach a deal on nuclear arms control.
Speaking at a Kremlin meeting with Russia's most senior military and civilian officials, Putin said he was informing them of the state of play in negotiations on Ukraine with the United States, and bilateral talks with Kyiv.
"I would like to tell you about the stage we are at with the current American administration, which, as everyone knows, is making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the fighting, end the crisis and reach agreements of interest to all parties involved in this conflict," Putin said.
Putin said the discussions with the United States were aimed at creating "the long-term conditions of peace between our countries, in Europe, and in the world as a whole, if we reach agreements in the field of strategic offensive arms control in the next stages."
Putin is due to hold a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Alaska at a U.S. military base, expected to begin at 11:30 a.m. local time (3:30 p.m. ET), according to the Kremlin. While Putin is the subject of an international arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, the U.S. does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.
Ahead of the summit, Russia and Ukraine on Thursday exchanged 84 prisoners of war from each side, the latest in a series of exchanges this spring and summer. Russia's Defence Ministry said that outcome was mediated by the United Arab Emirates.
On Wednesday at a Washington D.C., event, Trump threatened "severe consequences" if Putin does not appear serious about a ceasefire with Ukraine, though he did not offer specifics. Trump has resisted Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's calls for more punitive economic sanctions on Russia.
But Trump has also tempered expectations about what can be achieved in just one session.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, too, said Thursday that a comprehensive solution to the conflict beyond a temporary pause in fighting will take time.
"To achieve a peace, I think we all recognize that there'll have to be some conversation about security guarantees," Rubio told reporters. "There'll have to be some conversation about … territorial disputes and claims, and what they're fighting over."
Nuclear treaty pullbacks
The meeting on Friday will be the first time Putin has met with a U.S. president on American soil since George W. Bush's second term in 2007. Putin as Russian leader has met with four American presidents, including five substantive meetings in Trump's first term, occurring between 2017 and 2019.
The two countries have not engaged in a summit since 2021, the year before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.
Putin's foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said earlier that Putin and Trump will also discuss the "huge untapped potential" for Russia-U.S. economic ties, as well as the prospects for ending the war in Ukraine.
Ushakov told reporters the two leaders will meet one on one, accompanied only by translators. He said delegations from the two countries would then meet and have a working lunch, and the presidents would give a joint news conference.
Trump did not commit to a joint conference in an interview with Fox News Radio on Thursday. But he said that he would speak publicly after the talks.
Russia and the United States have by far the biggest arsenals of nuclear weapons in the world, but a number of treaties signed as the countries emerged from the Cold War have unravelled as their relationship has deteriorated.
The last remaining pillar of nuclear arms control between the two countries is the New Strategic Arms Reduction (New START) treaty, which is due to expire on Feb. 5, 2026. Putin suspended Russia's participation in the treaty but did not withdraw from it outright.
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The New START treaty covers strategic nuclear weapons — those designed by each side to hit the enemy's centres of military, economic and political power — and caps the number of deployed warheads at 1,550 on each side. Both are likely to breach that limit if the treaty is not extended or replaced.
Russia said last week that it would no longer place any limits on where it deploys intermediate-range missiles that can carry nuclear warheads.
The United States and the Soviet Union agreed a landmark treaty in 1987 to scrap all ground-based shorter-range and intermediate-range (INF) nuclear and conventional weapons, defined as those with ranges between 500 km and 5,500 km.
The United States withdrew from the INF treaty in 2019 during Donald Trump's first presidency, citing alleged violations that Russia denied. The following year, the Trump White House pulled out of the Open Skies treaty on communicating details of observation flights, as both sides cited alleged violations.
Russia in 2023 revoked ratification of the multilateral Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty enacted in the 1990s, though North Korea is the only nuclear power to conduct nuclear test explosions this century.
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Tensions ratcheted up earlier this month when Trump said he had ordered two U.S. nuclear submarines to move closer to Russia because of what he called threatening comments by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev about the possibility of war between the two countries.
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U.S. President Donald Trump said Russia would face 'very severe consequences' if it doesn't move toward peace with Ukraine, but some wonder if Trump will follow through on his tough talk when he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin later this week.
After a series of virtual meetings on Wednesdays, including with the White House, Zelenskyy and European leaders voiced some optimism as they intensified efforts to prevent any deal between Trump and Putin that would leave Ukraine vulnerable to further Russia attacks.
Zelenskyy confirmed this week that Russian forces had advanced by about 10 kilometres near the town of Dobropillia in the Donetsk region. Ukraine, suffering manpower challenges, was forced to move in reserves to stabilize the situation.