Trump calls for immediate ceasefire and negotiations; Assad’s fall highlights Russia’s weakness, says Kyiv

The fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad underscored Russia’s weakness and inability to fight on two fronts, said Ukraine’s foreign ministry on Sunday.

US President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that Russia’s abandonment of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad led to his downfall, adding Moscow never should have protected him in the first place and then lost interest because of a war in Ukraine that never should have started.

Trump calls for immediate ceasefire

US president-elect Donald Trump called on Sunday for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to end “the madness”, prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Kremlin to list their conditions.

Trump made his comments just hours after meeting Zelensky in Paris for their first face-to-face talks since Trump won last month’s US election. Trump has vowed to bring about a negotiated end to the conflict, but so far has not provided details.

“Zelensky and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, adding that Kyiv had lost some 400,000 soldiers. “There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin.

“I know Vladimir well. This is his time to act. China can help. The World is waiting!” Trump added, referring to Russian President Putin.

Trump, in Paris for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, sat down with Zelensky on Saturday for about an hour, along with host President Emmanuel Macron.

Trump and Zelensky shook hands and smiled, but it was unclear how the conversation had gone. Accounts of the talks from the French and Ukrainian sides said only that the discussions had been good and productive.

Zelensky reacted to Trump’s message on Sunday saying peace was not just a piece of paper, but needed guarantees.

“When we talk about effective peace with Russia, we must first and foremost talk about effective guarantees for peace. Ukrainians want peace more than anyone else,” he said on X.

“It [the war] cannot simply end with a piece of paper and a few signatures. A ceasefire without guarantees can be reignited at any moment, as Putin has already done before. To ensure that Ukrainians no longer suffer losses, we must guarantee the reliability of peace and not turn a blind eye to occupation.”

It appeared Trump’s figure of 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers lost in the war meant both killed and wounded. Zelensky said 43,000 soldiers had been killed in the war and that there had been 370,000 wounded soldiers.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov convened a conference call with reporters to address Trump’s comments.

Peskov said 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 in 2022.

Putin has said repeatedly that a preliminary agreement reached between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in the first weeks of the war at talks in Istanbul, which was never implemented, could serve as the basis for future talks.

“Our position on Ukraine is well known,” said Peskov.

“The conditions for an immediate stop to hostilities were set out by President Putin in his speech to the Russian Foreign Ministry in June of this year. It is important to recall that it was Ukraine that refused and continues to refuse negotiations,” he said.

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.

Peskov noted that Zelensky had banned contacts with the Russian leadership through a special decree, which Peskov said would have to be revoked if talks were to proceed.

Assad's fall underscores Russian weakness, says Ukraine

The fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad underscored Russia’s weakness and inability to fight on two fronts, said Ukraine’s foreign ministry on Sunday.

Russia had bolstered Assad’s government by staging air strikes against opposition targets beginning in 2015 and had operated out of two bases on Syrian territory.

But Moscow’s 33-month-old invasion of Ukraine has sapped considerable military resources.

“Events in Syria demonstrate the weakness of Putin’s regime, which is incapable of fighting on two fronts and abandons its closest allies for the sake of continued aggression against Ukraine,” said the foreign ministry.

Russia said earlier that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had left office and departed his country after giving orders for a peaceful transfer of power, but did not say where he was now or whether the Russian military planned to stay in Syria.

The HUR intelligence directorate, posting on the Telegram messaging app, said Russian forces in Syria “had withdrawn its warships from the naval base in Tartous which Assad had allowed Moscow to use as payment for his security”.

A frigate, the Admiral Grigorovich, as well as a cargo ship, the Engineer Trubin, were pulled out of Tartous on Sunday, it said and Russian aircraft were moving “the remnants of their weapons and military equipment” from Khmemim air base.

HUR provided no evidence of its affirmations and Reuters was not immediately able to verify the situation.

Russian war bloggers warned at the weekend that the two bases and Moscow’s very presence in the Middle East were under threat from the insurgents.

Islamist rebels declared they had ousted Assad after seizing control of Damascus on Sunday, ending his family’s decades of autocratic rule after more than 13 years of civil war.

Assad flew out of Damascus for an unknown destination earlier on Sunday, two senior army officers told Reuters. His current whereabouts were unknown.

Trump says Russia abandoned Assad

Trump said on Sunday that Russia’s abandonment of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad led to his downfall, adding Moscow never should have protected him in the first place and then lost interest because of a war in Ukraine that never should have started.

“Assad is gone. He has fled his country. His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

“There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place,” Trump wrote. “They lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine ... a war that should never have started, and could go on forever.”

Trump, who takes office on 20 January, added that Russia and Iran, Assad’s other main backer, “are in a weakened state right now, one because of Ukraine and a bad economy, the other because of Israel and its fighting success”.

Ukraine destroys 28 Russian drones

The Ukrainian air force said on Sunday that its air defence units shot down 28 of 74 drones launched by Russia overnight targeting Ukraine.

The air force said on the Telegram messaging app that 46 of the Russian drones were “lost”, probably neutralised by electronic warfare. DM