War

One thousand thirty-four day. Trump is looking forward to a meeting with Putin, but preparations for it have not yet been made. North Korea increases arms supplies to Russia

Since February 24, 2022, Meduza has been broadcasting live about the Russian-Ukrainian war. Our chronicle is published once a day, and in it we dwell in detail on several key stories that are affecting the course of the war right now. We also publish your letters in these materials, because we are sure that we need to continue talking about the war. Please share your personal war stories with us. Find the feedback form at the end of this article. You can read the previous day's review here .

World

Trump said he was looking forward to meeting with Putin. It is not being prepared yet

US President-elect Donald Trump said he is looking forward to a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the Russian-Ukrainian war. “President Putin said he wants to meet with me as soon as possible. So we will wait for this, we must end this war,” Trump said on December 22.

He once again repeated that the war, in which “millions of military personnel have already died,” would never have started if he, and not Joe Biden, had been president in 2022.

On the night of December 23, the TASS agency disseminated a commentary by the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov - that there are no prerequisites for organizing a meeting between Putin and Trump. “There hasn’t been any real momentum yet,” he said when asked if there was a possibility of a meeting before Trump’s inauguration.

Putin himself, during a direct line on December 19, stated that he was ready to meet with Trump, but did not know when such a meeting might happen. “I haven’t spoken to him at all for more than four years. I am ready for this, and I will be ready for the meeting,” the Russian president said, assuring that Moscow is “ready for negotiations and compromises.” At the same time, Putin again accused Ukraine of unwillingness to negotiate.

Trump has repeatedly stated that he has good personal relations with Putin (the Russian President refrained from making similar assessments). After Trump’s victory in the elections, Putin congratulated him only on the third day, mentioning the American president at a meeting of the Valdai discussion club. At the same time, Putin said that he “does not consider it shameful” to call Trump. As The Washington Post later wrote, citing sources, on the same day Putin and Trump spoke by phone. The Kremlin officially denied that such a conversation actually took place; Trump’s team did not comment on it.

Russia

North Korea increases arms supplies to Moscow

Russia is receiving more and more weapons from North Korea, according to a new public report from South Korean intelligence, Yonhap writes on December 23.

According to Seoul, North Korea is supplying Russia with 240mm rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled artillery. There are also signs that North Korea is beginning to produce and supply the latest kamikaze drones, which were first officially shown to Kim Jong-un only a few weeks ago in November.

Also, South Korean intelligence reports, the DPRK is preparing to rotate or deploy additional troops in Russia. Seoul believes that these steps are aimed at gaining practical combat experience for North Korean military personnel and modernizing its own weapons system.

The Wall Street Journal, citing sources in Seoul, Washington and Kiev and satellite image data, also wrote on December 22 about an increase in the supply of Korean weapons. According to the newspaper, about 200 ammunition factories are currently operating at full capacity in the DPRK.

According to the WSJ, experts previously suspected that Pyongyang was getting rid of old weapons stockpiles, but now it is clear that new weapons are being supplied to Russia. In exchange, North Korea receives air defense systems from Russia and specialist assistance in creating spy satellites.

War through the eyes of Meduza readers

Yulia, Moscow region. The war finished me off. All these years of Covid I held on, I thought it couldn’t get worse, and there was always a future. Then the war came and there was no future.

My youth was in the 2000s. Then everything changed, colors emerged from the grayness, a different style of life, European, other freedoms and values. We were surrounded by friends, and there were many of them, we moved between countries and were proud of our differences. And then the war “turned on the time machine,” and now I see evolution in the opposite direction: we are going back to greyness.

I don't see war. I don't feel it. This is somewhere far away, not with me, but it hurts me a lot. My life without the bombing is ruined, I'm lost, I want to live, but I can't, and it's not my choice. My time moves forward, but I don’t live it, but as if I live it - the day has passed and okay, as if I were watching what was happening from the outside. We no longer make plans for the future, and consider all trips as an opportunity to escape from Russia. But even this I no longer have the strength to do. Now you understand that the worse, the better. Maybe one day it will all end, but for me there will be no victory in this war. No matter how it ends, for the Russians this war will last for a very long time.