Moscow cannot accept U.S. proposals for a ceasefire in Ukraine without addressing what it considers the “root causes” of the war, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Tuesday.
“We take the Americans’ proposed models and solutions very seriously, but we also cannot accept them as is,” Ryabkov said in an interview excerpt published by the Russian Foreign Ministry’s journal International Affairs.
U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed for a swift end to the more than three-year war since taking office in January, but his team’s negotiations with Russia and Ukraine have yet to produce any breakthroughs.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected a joint U.S.-Ukrainian plan for a broad 30-day ceasefire and last month suggested that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should be removed from office as part of the peace process.
On Sunday, Trump told NBC News he was “pissed off” at Putin for questioning Zelensky’s credibility as a negotiating partner and calling for new leadership in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said Monday that Putin remained open to speaking with Trump, who later told reporters he expects the Russian leader to “fulfill his part” of a peace deal.
But Ryabkov warned that Moscow sees no signals from either Trump or Ukraine that could bring an end to the war beyond the 30-day ceasefire proposal.
“There’s no place [in the U.S. plans] for our main demand today, which is resolving problems related to the root causes of this conflict,” he said.
Russian officials have repeatedly invoked the term “root causes,” which Putin said last June include Ukraine withdrawing from the partially Ukrainian regions and abandoning its NATO bid.
AFP contributed reporting.
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