The West must negotiate the end of the war based on "current reality," Shoigu says

The West should recognize that Russia is currently winning the war against Ukraine and therefore start negotiations, Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, said on November 7, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported.

Shoigu’s statement comes shortly after Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump won the US presidential election on November 5.

Trump’s victory also comes at a particularly precarious moment in the war, when Russian forces are advancing rapidly Donetsk Oblast. The president-elect has previously criticized military aid to Ukraine and expressed his intention to exit the war.

Former Defense Minister Shoigu accused the West of using Ukraine to inflict a strategic defeat Russiaadding that the plan had failed.

“The West faces a choice: continue financing it (the war) and destroying the Ukrainian population, or recognize the current reality and start negotiations,” Shoigu said.

Trump has criticized President Volodymyr Zelensky during his campaign.

He earlier laid the blame for the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Zelensky and US President Joe Biden, without mentioning Russian President Vladimir Putin, and he did referred to Zelensky as a “seller” for securing what Trump deemed too much military aid.

During the campaign, Trump claimed that if he returned to the White House, he would end Russia’s war in Ukraine within “24 hours.” He hinted at his message again as he delivered his victory speechas he told his cheering supporters, “I’m going to stop the wars.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that the plan could include delaying Ukraine’s accession to NATO for at least twenty years, freezing the war along the current front lines and establishing a demilitarized zone in the east.