The Kremlin expressed on Thursday its appreciation for US President Donald Trump’s attempts to mediate in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. However, it also suggested that the United States must realize it cannot effectively play a mediator role while supporting one side in the conflict, according to reports.
Earlier, the Ukrainian publication Kiev Independent noted that Ukraine has ramped up attacks on Russian refineries, believing it has secured Trump’s backing to adopt a bolder strategy aimed at forcing Russia to negotiate from a weaker position.
Doubts Over Washington’s Mediation
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who indicated last week that Europeans misunderstand their ability to negotiate with Russia from a position of strength based on assumptions of Russia’s weakening, rejected the Ukrainian publication’s claims on Thursday. He reiterated that Russia is “deeply grateful” for the mediation efforts made by the US.
“However, it is impossible to make such efforts while being involved in war on one side,” he emphasized to the press. “We are aware that the American negotiation team understands this very well and is fully aware of the situation. We start from this assumption and expect dialogue with American negotiators regarding a resolution in Ukraine to continue,” Peskov added.
Lavrov Seeks Clarifications
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov insisted on Wednesday that Russia remains committed to the agreements reached last year at the Alaska summit between Presidents Putin and Trump. He also stated that Russia wishes to know if Trump has indeed shifted his stance on the Ukraine war, as suggested by French President Emmanuel Macron during last week’s G7 summit.
Macron, who hosted the G7 summit in Evian, claimed that during discussions there, Trump agreed with the notion that Russia does not desire peace in Ukraine, indicating a “real change in approach” from the US. Trump himself urged Russia to make peace with Ukraine after what he described as a “very good” meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Evian.
“Regarding Ukraine, we want to understand what happened in Evian,” Lavrov stated at an event in Moscow. “The Americans have yet to inform us of their conclusions following the Evian summit or what their future course of action will be,” he added.
He also referenced another claim made by Macron that the agreements reached last August between Trump and Putin at the Anchorage summit have been “buried” in Evian.
A Strategy to Buy Time?
Russian officials frequently refer to the ‘Spirit of Anchorage’ without specifying what was agreed upon by Putin and Trump, but some analysts speculate a deal might involve the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from areas they still control in the Donbas region in exchange for a freeze on the front line. According to the Russian foreign minister, several agreements concerning political solutions to the Ukrainian crisis were reached at the Trump-Putin summit.
Expressing growing frustration from Moscow, Lavrov suggested that the Alaska summit may have been “a US stratagem to buy time to rearm the Kiev regime,” while other high-ranking Russian officials accused Washington this week of failing to uphold the “agreements” made in Anchorage.
Lavrov reiterated that Russia wishes to continue discussions with the US and is still anticipating a new visit to Moscow from Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
