Russia plays hardball on Ukraine peace discussions after Trump talks of Putin contact

Russia's point man for relations with the United States said on Monday that all of President Vladimir Putin's conditions must be met in full before the war in Ukraine can end, suggesting Moscow is playing hardball with US President Donald Trump.

Trump, who has repeatedly said he wants to end the war in Ukraine swiftly after hundreds of thousands of deaths, said on Sunday he thought he was making progress though he has not set out how he hopes to end the conflict.

Asked whether he had had a conversation with Putin since he became president on January 20 or before, Trump told reporters on Air Force One: "I’ve had it. Let's just say I’ve had it."

The Kremlin refused to either confirm or deny the contact.

But Moscow swiftly underscored that its maximalist demands - as set out by Putin in June last year - remained the opening bid at the outset of the negotiations.

The "political solution as we envisage it cannot be achieved otherwise than through the full implementation of what was pronounced by President Putin when he spoke to the Russian Foreign Ministry in June," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told a Moscow news briefing in English.

"This is where we are and the sooner U.S., Britain and others understand it, the better it would be and the closer this desired political solution will be for everyone," said Ryabkov.

In Putin's June 14 speech to the foreign ministry, he set out his terms: Ukraine must drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.

Kyiv, which wants to join NATO and wrest back control of lost territory if it can, said at the time that said such conditions would be tantamount to surrender.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after a Russia-friendly president was toppled in Ukraine's Maidan Revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces fighting Ukraine's armed forces.

In February 2022, Putin triggered full-scale war by sending in thousands of troops. He last spoke directly to U.S. President Joe Biden in February 2022, though messages have been relayed by other officials.

Peace in Ukraine?

Trump, while campaigning, promised to end the war in just a day, and U.S. officials have had discussions with Ukraine and Russia on ending the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two.

Putin said what he calls a "special military operation" was needed to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine and counter what he said was a grave threat to Russia from potential Ukrainian membership of NATO.

Ryabkov, a career diplomat who also oversees arms control, said that Russia did not see a major change in the U.S. approach to Ukraine, and cautioned that Moscow would not be spoken to in the language of ultimatums.

"Without solving the problems which were the root causes of what is happening, it will not be possible to reach an agreement," Ryabkov said. "So variations and half-measures are not the path we are prepared to go along."

Ukraine and its Western backers, led by the United States, have accused Russia of trying to conduct a colonial-style land grab, and Kyiv's supporters have vowed to defeat Russian forces by supplying hundreds of billions of dollars worth of weapons.

Moscow controls about 20% of Ukraine, including Crimea, annexed in 2014, and four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Though Russia claims the entirety of the four regions as wholly part of Russia, its forces on the ground control 70-80% of the territory with about 26,000 square km still held by Ukrainian troops, open-source data on the front line shows.

Reuters reported in November that Putin is open to discussing a Ukraine peace deal with Trump but rules out making any major territorial concessions and insists Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Reuters on Friday that he wanted Ukraine to supply the U.S. with rare earths and other minerals in return for financial support for its war effort.