Russia rejects US' Ukraine proposals 'in current form'

Moscow: Russia cannot accept US proposals to end the Ukraine war in their current form as they do not address problems Moscow regards as having caused the conflict, a senior Russian diplomat said, suggesting US-Russia talks on the subject had stalled.

The comments by deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov suggest Russian and the US have so far been unable to bridge differences which President Vladimir Putin raised over two weeks ago when he said the American proposals needed reworking.

They come as US President Donald Trump appears to be growing increasingly impatient with what he has suggested might be foot-dragging over a wider deal by Moscow.


Ryabkov, a specialist in US-Russia relations, said Moscow was not yet able to move forward with a deal however. "We take the models and solutions proposed by the Americans very seriously, but we can't accept it all in its current form," he was quoted by state media as telling the Russian magazine International Affairs in an interview released on Tuesday.

"As far as we can see, there is no place in them today for our main demand, namely to solve the problems related to the root causes of this conflict. It is completely absent, and that must be overcome."

Putin has said he wants Ukraine to drop its ambitions to join NATO, Russia to control the entirety of four Ukrainian regions it has claimed as its own, and the size of the Ukrainian army to be limited. Kyiv says those demands are tantamount to demanding its capitulation.