A high-ranking Russian official is swatting down President Donald Trump’s Ukraine peace demands days after the U.S. president said he was “p—ed off” at Vladimir Putin.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the country “cannot accept” the U.S.-brokered peace deal, claiming that there is “no place for our main demand” in the agreement.
“We take the models and solutions proposed by the Americans very seriously, but we cannot accept all this as it is,” Ryabkov said in an interview with International Affairs magazine, according to Newsweek. “All that we have today is an attempt to find a certain scheme that would first allow us to achieve a ceasefire, as it is conceived by the Americans.”
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, nearly 500,000 soldiers have been killed, according to U.S. official estimates, with Russia accounting for almost 300,000 of those deaths as it seeks more territory.
“We certainly have a deeply and carefully thought-out set of our own priorities and approaches to this topic, which is being worked out and worked out,” Ryabkov continued, “including by our negotiating team at the recent talks with the Americans in Riyadh.”
On Sunday, Trump signaled that his relationship with Putin was at a contentious point, with the U.S. president showing clear frustration as he threatened Russia’s oil with tariffs.
The dissolving relationship hit a low point last week after Putin demanded that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky be removed from power, with a transitional government taking over.
“I was very angry, p—ed off, when Putin started getting into Zelensky’s credibility and started talking about new leadership in Ukraine,” Trump told NBC over the weekend. “the anger dissipates quickly… if he does the right thing.”
Trump is planning to have a phone call with the Russian leader this week as the United States looks to close in on a permanent ceasefire for the war-torn region.
