“What happened at the White House on Friday, of course, demonstrated how difficult it will be to reach a settlement trajectory around Ukraine,” Peskov stated. “The Kyiv regime and Zelenskyy do not want peace. They want the war to continue.”
ALSO READ: Zelenskyy warned against ‘taking the bait’ before tense Trump meetingThe Kremlin official further argued that Ukraine’s position would only shift under external pressure.
“It is very important that someone forces Zelenskyy himself to change his position,” Peskov said. “Someone has to make Zelenskyy want peace. If the Europeans can do it, they should be honoured and praised.”
The war in Ukraine, now in its third year, began when Russian forces invaded in 2022, triggering the most serious conflict between Moscow and the West since the Cold War. However, hostilities in eastern Ukraine trace back to 2014, following Kyiv’s pro-Western shift and Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Since then, Russian-backed separatists have battled Ukrainian troops in the Donbas region.
Peskov claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin was well aware of the “unprecedented event” in the Oval Office and took it as further evidence of Zelenskyy’s shortcomings in diplomacy.
“In addition, we see that the collective West has partially begun to lose its collectivity, and a fragmentation of the collective West has begun,” he added, suggesting divisions among Ukraine’s allies.
Moscow has repeatedly accused Western nations of prolonging the war by supporting Kyiv with military aid. Meanwhile, Ukraine insists that lasting peace can only come through the full restoration of its territorial sovereignty, including Crimea and the eastern regions under Russian occupation.
ALSO READ: UK and France to draft Ukraine peace deal for Trump’s approval, says Starmer
(Edited by : Priyanka deshpande)
