Ukraine peace deal ‘reasonably close’ – Kremlin aide

Russia is seeking a permanent settlement to the Ukraine conflict, Kirill Dmitriev has said

Moscow, Washington, and Kiev are “reasonably close to a diplomatic solution,” President Vladimir Putin’s aide, Kirill Dmitriev, has said. Dmitriev noted that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky recently changed his tone on a settlement and began talking about “battle lines” rather than insisting on a complete Russian withdrawal from all the territories Kiev still claims. 

In an interview with CNN on Friday, Dmitriev, who was visiting the US for meetings with American officials, stressed that the hostilities between Moscow and Kiev “will have a diplomatic solution.”

His comments came after US President Donald Trump called off a summit with Putin in Budapest. Trump said the planned meeting “didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get” toward a settlement, while calling for an immediate halt to the fighting along the current front lines.

Both Putin and Trump suggested that the summit could eventually be organized at a later date.

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Dmitriev said, “Russia really wants not just a ceasefire, but the final solution to the conflict.” He noted that Trump himself warned that a “ceasefire can always be broken.”

“It’s really a temporary solution,” he said, adding that pauses allow “many people… to do all sorts of rearmament and preparation for continuation of conflict.”

Dmitriev expressed confidence that Trump’s mediation efforts will ultimately succeed. He contrasted Trump’s approach with that of former US President Joe Biden, arguing that maintaining dialogue with Moscow is preferable to pursuing a “strategic defeat of Russia,” which he said obviously failed.

Moscow has stated that a lasting settlement must address the root causes of the conflict and include guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO, along with the country’s demilitarization, denazification, and recognition of the territorial realities on the ground.