The Japan Times - Kremlin: 'Significant part of Ukraine wants to be Russia'

Addressing the three-year conflict between Moscow and Kyiv in a Fox News interview that aired Monday, Trump said: "(Ukraine) may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that the situation in Ukraine "largely corresponds to President Trump's words."

"The fact that a significant part of Ukraine wants to become Russia, and has already, is a fact," he told reporters, referring to Moscow's 2022 annexation of four Ukrainian regions.

"Any phenomenon can happen with a 50 percent probability -- either yes or no," Peskov added.

Trump has said ending the fighting is one of his priorities for his first months in the White House, but is yet to outline specific proposals for how he plans to bring the two sides to the negotiating table.

Both Moscow and Kyiv have publicly welcomed his focus on ending the conflict.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is ready for direct talks with Trump on a possible agreement, while the New York Post reported over the weekend that Trump had told them he had already spoken to Putin privately over the issue.

The Kremlin declined to confirm or deny the call.

- Energy strikes -

Both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have previously ruled out direct talks with each other, and there appears to be little ground where the two could strike a deal.

Kyiv fears that any settlement that does not include hard military commitments for its security -- such as NATO membership or the deployment of Western peacekeeping troops -- will just allow the Kremlin time to regroup and rearm for a fresh offensive.

Putin is demanding that Ukraine withdraw from swathes of its south and east that Kyiv still has control over, and considers closer ties between Ukraine and NATO inadmissable.

Zelensky has meanwhile rejected any territorial concessions to Moscow, though he has acknowledged that Ukraine might have to rely on diplomatic means to secure the return of some territory.

Russia says it has annexed five regions of Ukraine -- Crimea in 2014 and then Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia in 2022 -- though it does not have full control over them.

Zelensky will meet US Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, the Ukrainian president's spokesman told AFP.

Trump will also dispatch his special envoy Keith Kellogg to Ukraine later this month to further discuss a possible roadmap for ending the conflict.

Both armies are trying to secure an advantage on the battlefield ahead of possible talks.

Russia's defence ministry said Tuesday its troops had captured the small village of Yasenove in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

Overnight the two sides traded long-range attacks on each other's energy infrastructure.

Ukraine's General Staff said its forces had struck an oil refinery in Russia's Saratov region, sparking a fire.

"Strikes on strategic targets involved in the Russian armed aggression against Ukraine will continue," it said in a statement.

The governor of the Russian region had earlier reported a drone attack on an industrial site, without specifying where.

Russia's defence ministry also said it had struck Ukrainian gas and energy sites that support Kyiv's army in an overnight aerial attack.

Naftogaz, the Ukrainian national gas company, confirmed one of its facilities in the eastern Poltava region had been damaged in the "massive" Russian attack overnight.

Temporary power cuts -- frequent across Ukraine -- were put in place Tuesday morning following the strike.

Moscow has pursued a months-long bombing campaign against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, claiming the attacks targeted facilities that aid Kyiv's military.

Ukraine has carried out its own strikes on Russian energy and military installations, and Moscow has accused it of using US- and British-supplied missiles to strike deep inside Russian territory.

S.Fujimoto--JT