The Kremlin agrees with President Donald Trump's comments that Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelensky is holding up the peace process to end the war started by Moscow, Vladimir Putin's spokesman has said.
Dmitry Peskov was responding to Trump's comments to Reuters that Putin was keener than Zelensky to agree a deal to end the war. Trump had told Reuters that Putin was "ready to make a deal" but Ukraine was reluctant to, in an assessment at odds with European leaders and analysts who believe Moscow has no intention of curbing its war aims.
When asked about the comments on Thursday, Peskov told reporters, "here we can agree. This is true. President Putin and the Russian side maintain their openness," according to state media.
Newsweek has contacted the Ukrainian foreign ministry for comment.
Trump's comments suggest he sees Zelensky as the barrier to peace despite analysis, including by U.S. intelligence, that Putin will not stop with his full-scale invasion until he captures all of Ukraine. Al Jazeera reported in June 2025 Putin as saying that the "Russian and Ukrainian people are one nation [and in this] sense, all of Ukraine is ours".
U.S.-led negotiations focused on security guarantees for a post-war Ukraine have yielded little progress. American political support remains critical for Kyiv and so Trump's remarks will frustrate Zelensky and his allies, suggesting that Trump is more receptive to Moscow's rhetoric than Ukraine's requests.
Peskov's comments follow an interview with Reuters Trump gave at the Oval Office, in which he said that Russia, rather than Ukraine, was ready to make a deal to end the war started by Putin.
When asked why U.S.-led negotiations had not yet ended hostilities, Trump responded: "Zelensky", a leader with whom Trump has had a volatile relationship, demonstrated by a public argument last February in the White House. When asked to explain further, Trump replied that Zelensky was "having a hard time getting there."
U.S.-led negotiations, involving special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, focused on pushing Ukraine to abandon the eastern Donbas region whose oblasts, Donetsk and Luhansk, Putin claims to have annexed but does not fully control. Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out any territorial concessions to Moscow which would go against Ukraine's constitution.
Zelensky has called for a temporary ceasefire to allow elections in the country as a step toward ending Russia's war. However, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that Russia was willing to negotiate with Europe but dismissed the prospect of a permanent or 60-day ceasefire.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its Thursday update that Lavrov's statement rejects the measures required for Ukraine to fulfill Moscow's demands for elections.
President Donald Trump told Reuters of Putin: "I think he's ready to make a deal," adding, "I think Ukraine is less ready to make a deal."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, per Russian state media: "Here we can agree. This is true. President Putin and the Russian side maintain their openness."
Peskov added: "The position of the Russian side is well known to both American negotiators and President Trump, both in Kyiv and the leadership of the Kyiv regime. This is a consistent position."
The prospect of a peace deal remains distant. The ISW said that Moscow continues to insist that the U.S., Ukraine, and Europe accept Russian demands, rejecting recent U.S.-led peace efforts to find compromises.
The think tank added that Lavrov's statement was likely an attempt to set conditions ahead of a possible upcoming meeting between Witkoff, Kushner, and Putin.