A senior Russian diplomat said that Moscow cannot accept the United Statesโ proposals to end the Ukraine conflict in their current form. They argued that the proposals fail to address the underlying issues Russia sees as the root causes of the war, indicating a deadlock in discussions.
The comments by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov suggest Moscow and Washington have so far been unable to bridge differences which President Vladimir Putin raised more than two weeks ago when he said U.S. proposals needed reworking.
They come as U.S. President Donald Trump appears to be growing increasingly impatient with what he has suggested might be foot-dragging over a wider deal by Moscow.
Trump in recent days has said he is โpissed offโ with Putin and has spoken of imposing sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil if he feels Moscow is blocking a deal.
Moscow Seeks Changes
Ryabkov, a specialist in U.S.-Russia relations, said Moscow was not yet able to move forward with a deal however.
โWe take the models and solutions proposed by the Americans very seriously, but we canโt accept it all in its current form,โ Ryabkov was quoted by state media as telling the Russian magazine โInternational Affairsโ in an interview released on Tuesday.
โAs far as we can see, there is no place in them today for our main demand, namely to solve the problems related to the root causes of this conflict. It is completely absent, and that must be overcome.โ
Putin has said he wants Ukraine to drop its ambitions to join NATO, Russia to control the entirety of four Ukrainian regions it has claimed as its own, and the size of the Ukrainian army to be limited. Kyiv says those demands are tantamount to demanding its capitulation.
Asked about Trumpโs latest remarks about wanting Putin to do a deal on Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier on Tuesday that Moscow was โcontinuing our contacts with the American sideโ.
โThe subject is very complex. The substance that we are discussing, related to the Ukrainian settlement, is very complex. This requires a lot of extra effort.โ
Before the weekend, Trump had adopted a more conciliatory stance towards Russia that had left Western allies wary as he tried to broker an end to the conflict in Ukraine, now in its fourth year.
But in recent days and amid lobbying by Europeans such as Finlandโs president urging him to hold Russia to account, he has adopted a tougher tone.
(With inputs from Reuters)