Kremlin Says ‘Let’s See’ If Trump Victory Will Help End Ukraine War

 Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP)
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Kremlin Says ‘Let’s See’ If Trump Victory Will Help End Ukraine War

 Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP)

The Kremlin reacted cautiously on Wednesday after Donald Trump declared victory in the US presidential election, saying the US was still a hostile state and that time would tell if Trump rhetoric on ending the Ukraine war translated into reality.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 triggered the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when the Soviet Union and the US came close to nuclear war.

Trump, a Republican, claimed victory in the 2024 presidential contest defeating Democrat Kamala Harris, capping a stunning political comeback four years after he left the White House.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Trump had made some important statements about wanting to end the Ukraine war during his campaign, but only time would tell if they will lead to action.

"Let us not forget that we are talking about an unfriendly country, which is both directly and indirectly involved in a war against our state" (in Ukraine)," Peskov told reporters.

Peskov said he was not aware of any plans by President Vladimir Putin to congratulate Trump on his victory and that relations with Washington were at an historic low.

"We have repeatedly said that the US is able to contribute to the end of this conflict. This cannot be done overnight, but... the US is capable of changing the trajectory of its foreign policy. Will this happen, and if so, how ... we will see after (the US president's inauguration in) January."

Russian and US diplomats say relations between the world's two largest nuclear powers have only been worse during the depths of the Cold War. Russian officials from Putin down said ahead of the election that it made no difference to Moscow who won the White House, even as Kremlin-guided state media coverage showed a preference for Trump.

Kirill Dmitriev, the influential head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, said a Trump victory could be a chance to repair ties.

"This opens up new opportunities for resetting relations between Russia and the United States," added Dmitriev, a former Goldman Sachs banker who has previously had contacts with the Trump team.

In 2009, then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed a "reset" with Moscow, but due to an apparent translation error presented Moscow with a symbolic button labelled "overload" in Russian instead of "reset".

Despite the "reset", relations between Putin and then US President Barack Obama soured.

WAR IN UKRAINE

Trump, 78, has promised to swiftly end the war in Ukraine if elected, though he has not explained exactly how he would do that.

Putin has said he is ready to talk about a possible end to the war, but that Russia's territorial gains and claims must be accepted, something that the Ukrainian leadership rejected as an unacceptable capitulation.

Russian forces are advancing at the fastest pace in at least a year in Ukraine and control about one fifth of the country.

That includes Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, about 80% of the Donbas - a coal-and-steel zone - and more than 70% of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday that Trump's win would probably be bad news for Ukraine, which relies on Washington as its top military backer.

"Trump has one useful quality for us: as a businessman to the core, he mortally dislikes spending money on various hangers–on," Medvedev, now a senior security official, posted on his Telegram account.

"The question is how much Trump will be forced to give to the war. He's stubborn, but the system is stronger," he said.



Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Names New Land Forces Chief, Says Changes Needed

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint press conference with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (not pictured), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, November 19, 2024. (Reuters)
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint press conference with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (not pictured), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, November 19, 2024. (Reuters)
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Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Names New Land Forces Chief, Says Changes Needed

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint press conference with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (not pictured), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, November 19, 2024. (Reuters)
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint press conference with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (not pictured), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, November 19, 2024. (Reuters)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy replaced the commander of the military's land forces on Friday, putting Major General Mykhailo Drapatyi in charge, as Russia notches up gains in the east and Kyiv's troops face manpower shortages.

Zelenskiy said "internal changes" were needed as he announced the 42-year-old would replace Lieutenant General Oleksandr Pavliuk, who took the helm of the land forces in a major shake-up in February 2024.

"The main task is to increase noticeably the combat efficiency of our army, ensure the quality of servicemen training, and introduce innovative approaches to people management in Ukraine's Armed Forces," Zelenskiy said.

"The Ukrainian army needs internal changes to achieve our state's goals in full," he said on Telegram after meeting his top military and government officials.

Drapatyi is well respected in the army and military analysts praised his appointment. Drapatyi took command of the Kharkiv front in May and managed to stop the Russian offensive in the northeast, stabilizing the front.

Zelenskiy also said that he appointed Colonel Oleh Apostol, commander of the 95th separate air-assault brigade, as a deputy to army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.

He praised both Drapatyi and Apostol, saying "they had proved their efficiency on the battlefield".

Ukraine is on the back foot on the battlefield as it fights a much bigger and better-equipped enemy 33 months after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The Russian forces are steadily advancing in the eastern Donetsk region. Syrskyi, the army chief, said on Friday he would strengthen troops deployed on the eastern front with reserves, ammunition, and equipment as he visited two key Ukrainian-held sites in the Donetsk region.

Ukraine has also lost about 40% of the territory it captured in Russia's Kursk region in a surprise incursion in August, as Russian forces have mounted waves of counter-assaults.

The head of the land forces oversees mobilization efforts during the war.

Military analysts say Ukraine's military is experiencing manpower shortages, making it harder to rotate troops out of the more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) of frontline or to build up reserve forces.