No Contact with Trump So Far, the Kremlin Says

US President-elect Donald Trump (C) sits inside the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral during its official reopening ceremony, in Paris, France, 07 December 2024. (EPA)
US President-elect Donald Trump (C) sits inside the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral during its official reopening ceremony, in Paris, France, 07 December 2024. (EPA)
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No Contact with Trump So Far, the Kremlin Says

US President-elect Donald Trump (C) sits inside the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral during its official reopening ceremony, in Paris, France, 07 December 2024. (EPA)
US President-elect Donald Trump (C) sits inside the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral during its official reopening ceremony, in Paris, France, 07 December 2024. (EPA)

The Kremlin said on Monday that it had so far had no contact with Donald Trump or his team after the US president-elect called for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to end "the madness" of war.

Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands of dead, displaced millions and triggered the biggest crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Trump said Ukraine had lost some 400,000 soldiers while Russia had lost 600,000 dead and wounded. Russia does not disclose its losses but Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy said 43,000 soldiers had been killed in the war and that there had been 370,000 wounded soldiers.

Asked if there had been any contact with Trump or his team, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "No, there have still been no contacts."

Peskov said the Kremlin had made its position clear during a rare Sunday statement.

The Kremlin said on Sunday that Russia was open to talks, but that they had to be based on agreements reached in Istanbul in 2022 and on current realities on the battlefield where Russian forces have been pushing forward at their fastest rate since the early days of the war.

Trump, who has vowed to swiftly end the conflict, is returning to the White House at a time of Russian ascendancy. Moscow controls a chunk of Ukraine about the size of the American state of Virginia and is advancing at the fastest pace since the early days of the 2022 invasion.

Putin has said that Ukraine must not join the NATO military alliance and that Russia should be left fully in control of four Ukrainian regions his troops partially control at the moment for a peace deal to be done.

Reuters reported last month that Putin is open to discussing a Ukraine ceasefire deal with Trump but rules out making any major territorial concessions and insists Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.



Former Israeli Hostage Dies at 78

A poster calling for the release of Hannah (Chana) Katzir is taped to the door of her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, on Nov. 21, 2023. (AP)
A poster calling for the release of Hannah (Chana) Katzir is taped to the door of her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, on Nov. 21, 2023. (AP)
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Former Israeli Hostage Dies at 78

A poster calling for the release of Hannah (Chana) Katzir is taped to the door of her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, on Nov. 21, 2023. (AP)
A poster calling for the release of Hannah (Chana) Katzir is taped to the door of her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, on Nov. 21, 2023. (AP)

Hannah Katzir, an Israeli woman who was taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023, and freed in a brief ceasefire last year, has died. She was 78.

She was among the 250 hostages the Palestinian group Hamas took back into Gaza following the surprise attack that left about 1,200 people dead.

Israel’s subsequent bombardment and ground invasion have killed over 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.

The Hostages Families Forum, a group representing the families of people taken captive, confirmed Katzir’s death Tuesday but did not disclose the cause.

Her daughter, Carmit Palty Katzir said in a statement that her mother’s “heart could not withstand the terrible suffering since Oct. 7.”

Katzir’s husband, Rami, was killed during the attack by fighters who raided their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. Her son Elad was also kidnapped and his body was recovered in April by the Israeli military, who said he had been killed in captivity.

She spent 49 days in captivity and was freed in late November 2023. Shortly after Katzir was freed, her daughter told Israeli media that she had been hospitalized with heart issues attributed to “difficult conditions and starvation” while she was held captive.