WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Trump says he will meet 'very quickly' with Putin

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday he is going to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin "very quickly" after he takes office next week.

He did not provide a timeline for the meeting, which would be the first between the leaders of the two countries since Russia's war with Ukraine started in February 2022.

When asked about his strategy to end the war, Trump told Newsmax: "Well, there's only one strategy and it's up to Putin and I can't imagine he's too thrilled about the way it's gone because it hasn't gone exactly well for him either.

"And I know he wants to meet and I'm going to meet very quickly. I would've done it sooner but...you have to get into the office. For some of the things, you do have to be there."

U.S. Congressman Mike Waltz, the incoming national security adviser, said on Sunday he expected a call between Trump and Putin in "the coming days and weeks."

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

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine’s military weakened in 2024 – Global Firepower

Ukraine’s military has slid for a second consecutive year in the rating of the world’s top armies compiled by Global Firepower. By contrast, Russia has retained second place for over a decade.

In its 2025 Military Strength Ranking, the analytical outlet ranked the US military first, with a ‘PowerIndex’ score of 0.0744 (where 0.0000 is considered perfect), followed by Russia with 0.0788, and China in third place with the same score. Ukraine ranks 20th, with a score of 0.3755. The latter indicator inversely correlates with a nation’s military might.

Last year’s assessment placed Kiev in 18th place, with the top three armies remaining unchanged. In 2023, Ukraine ranked 15th.

The website, which has been publishing annual ratings of 145 armed forces since 2006, claims to base its analyses on “each nation’s potential war-making capability across land, sea, and air fought by conventional means,” – meaning that a country’s nuclear arsenal, if it has one, does not factor in. “The results incorporate values related to manpower, equipment, natural resources, finances, and geography represented by 60+ individual factors,” Global Firepower writes on its website.

Speaking in mid-December, Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian General Staff, estimated that since the Ukrainian conflict escalated in February 2022, Kiev had suffered nearly 1 million casualties in terms of manpower and lost approximately 20,000 tanks and other armored vehicles.
According to the general, while the “US and its allies [had] significantly increased the volume of military assistance to Ukraine,” Russian forces continued to have the upper hand on the battlefield.

In an interview with local media late last month, Vladimir Shylov, former commander of the 3rd Company in Ukraine’s 134th Separate Territorial Defense Battalion, claimed that the country had “ceased to exist” as a functional state due to widespread corruption and mismanagement, pointing the finger at the leadership in Kiev and Vladimir Zelensky personally. He warned that in light of these difficulties, Kiev’s forces could soon be overwhelmed by advancing Russian troops, allowing Moscow’s military to reach as far as the Dnieper River.

The former commander also criticized Ukraine’s ongoing incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region, describing it as a political ploy without any real strategic military value. He pointed out that the operation has failed to stop Moscow from making territorial gains in recent months.

Several Western media outlets have similarly quoted Ukrainian officers and soldiers as complaining about dire manpower shortages, despite the ever-intensifying mobilization of fighting-age men.

Reuters/RT