Russia cannot accept United States proposals to end Ukraine’s war “in its present form” because they do not address the problems Moscow considers to have caused the conflict, a senior Russian diplomat said, suggesting that negotiations on the subject have stagnated.
Comments by Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov suggest that Moscow and Washington could not overcome the differences that President Vladimir Putin raised more than two weeks ago when he said US proposals needed to be reformulated.
The statement also occurs while US President Donald Trump suggested that there was a slow deal with a broader deal with Moscow.
Trump has stated in recent days that he threatened to impose sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil if he feels Moscow is blocking an agreement.
Ryabkov, a US and Russian relations expert, said Moscow has not yet been able to advance with an agreement.
“We take the models and solutions proposed by Americans very seriously, but we cannot accept everything in their current form,” Ryabkov told Russian magazine “International Affairs” in an interview released on Tuesday (1st), according to state media.
“As far as we can see, there is no place in them today for our main demand, that is, to solve the problems related to the root causes of this conflict. It is completely absent, and this must be overcome,” he added.
Putin said he wants Ukraine to abandon her ambitions to join the NATO, that Russia controls all four Ukrainian regions that claimed her, and that the size of the Ukrainian army is limited. Kiev says these demands are equivalent to demanding their capitulation.
“Very complex” agreement
Asked about Trump’s latest statements about wanting Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier on Tuesday that Moscow was “continuing our contacts with the American side.”
“The subject is very complex. The substance we are discussing, related to the Ukrainian agreement, is very complex. This requires a lot of extra effort,” he said.
Russia also said on Tuesday that it was fully fulfilling a US-mediated truce over
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state TV that Defense Minister Andrei Belousov had informed Putin about alleged Ukrainian violations during a meeting of the Russian Security Council on Tuesday.
Russia has passed a list of violations to US National Security Counselor Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Lavrov said.
Last week, Trump had taken on a more conciliatory stance against Russia while he tries in Ukraine in his fourth year.
But in recent days, and amid the lobby of Europeans as asking him to hold Russia responsible, Trump has adopted a harder posture.
