Moscow says it believes President Donald Trump is sincere about seeking an end to the conflict, but the Kremlin plans to continue military operations until Washington presents another proposal acceptable to Russia.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Russia will continue fighting in Ukraine while waiting for the Trump administration to offer a new path toward negotiations, the Kremlin said Friday, presenting Moscow as open to diplomacy but unwilling to pause its military campaign.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia did not view continued combat as the preferred outcome but would press ahead because it sees no immediate prospect of a peace agreement.
“Yes, [fighting] is not the preferred path, but given the absence of prospects for peace, we will see it through to the end, to total victory. Yet, we will wait for new [U.S.] proposals,” Peskov told a Russian state television reporter.
His remarks reflected the Kremlin’s effort to preserve a working relationship with President Donald Trump while blaming Ukraine and its European allies for blocking earlier attempts to reach a settlement.
Peskov said Russian officials believed Trump and his negotiating team were genuinely trying to develop terms that could be accepted by all sides.
“The Americans — President Trump, his negotiators — are sincere in their desire to formulate options acceptable to everyone. The option they proposed was accepted by us but rejected by the Ukrainians,” Peskov said.
“The Americans could not persuade the Ukrainians … who were being incited by the Europeans.”
The war is now halfway through its fifth year, and the last three-way peace discussions involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States took place in February. Those talks occurred shortly before the United States and Israel entered a war with Iran, shifting Washington’s diplomatic attention toward the Middle East.
Russian officials have repeatedly said they expect U.S. mediation efforts to resume after the crisis involving Iran begins to subside.
The top American and Russian diplomats held a brief meeting in Asia this week, providing one of the few recent direct contacts between the two governments. Moscow has also said for several weeks that it is prepared to receive Trump administration envoys for negotiations in the Russian capital, although no date has been scheduled.
Peskov acknowledged that the Kremlin sees contradictions in Washington’s approach because the United States continues supplying military equipment to Kyiv while simultaneously calling for an end to the war.
He described the U.S. position as ambiguous because Washington was “continuing to pump Ukraine full of weaponry” even as it pursued diplomacy.
“However, we must leverage this duality in the Trump administration’s position wherever it aligns with our interests. And their desire to facilitate a peaceful settlement is entirely in line with our interests,” Peskov said.
The statement leaves Russia publicly committed to both continued warfare and renewed negotiations. Moscow is signaling that it will consider future proposals from Washington, but it is not offering to halt operations while those discussions are being developed.
No new U.S. peace initiative has been formally announced, and neither side has provided a timetable for the possible return of American envoys to Moscow.
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