Russia is open to peace with Ukriane but insists on achieving its goals, says Kremlin spokesman
Russia is open to peace with Ukraine but achieving our goals remains a priority Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned Sunday days after U S President Donald Trump gave Moscow a -day deadline to agree to a ceasefire or face tougher sanctions Peskov and other Russian personnel have repeatedly rejected accusations from Kyiv and its Western partners of stalling peace talks Meanwhile Moscow continues to intensify its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities with more drones in a single night than it did during certain entire months in and analysts say the barrages are likely to escalate President Putin has repeatedly spoken of his desire to bring the Ukrainian settlement to a peaceful conclusion as soon as accomplishable This is a long process it requires effort and it is not easy Peskov notified state TV reporter Pavel Zarubin The main thing for us is to achieve our goals Our goals are clear he added The Kremlin has insisted that any peace deal should see Ukraine withdraw from the four regions that Russia illegally annexed in September but never fully captured It also wants Ukraine to renounce its bid to join NATO and accept strict limits on its armed forces demands Kyiv and its Western allies have rejected President Donald Trump threatened Russia on July with steep tariffs and revealed a rejuvenated pipeline for American weapons to reach Ukraine hardening his stance toward Moscow after months of frustration following unsuccessful negotiations aimed at ending the war The direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations in Istanbul resulted in several rounds of prisoner exchanges but little else Trump mentioned he would implement severe tariffs unless a peace deal is reached within days He provided scarce details on how they would be implemented but suggested they would target Russia s trading partners in an effort to isolate Moscow in the global financial sector In addition Trump stated European allies would buy billions and billions of dollars of U S military equipment to be transferred to Ukraine replenishing the besieged country s supplies of weapons Included in the plan are Patriot air defense systems a top priority for Ukraine as it fends off Russian drones and missiles Doubts were in recent weeks raised about Trump s commitment to supply Ukraine when the Pentagon paused shipments over concerns that U S stockpiles were running low
