MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Thursday that it assumed U.S. President Donald Trump was still committed to work towards achieving peace in Ukraine, after the U.S. leader abruptly shifted his rhetoric in Kyiv’s favour earlier this week.
Trump said on Tuesday after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that he believed that Kyiv could recapture all of its land taken by Russia – which controls around one-fifth of the country – and that it should act now, with Moscow facing economic problems.
Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, told reporters on Wednesday that Trump was growing “incredibly impatient” with Russia because they were not “putting enough on the table to end the war.”
“If the Russians refuse to negotiate in good faith, I think it’s going to be very, very bad for their country. That’s what the president made clear. It’s not a shift in position. It’s an acknowledgement of the reality on the ground,” Vance said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked to comment on Vance’s remark and if Russia viewed it as contradicting Washington’s stated desire to help end the war, said:
“No, it does not. In fact, we see different rhetoric coming out of Washington. For now, we assume that Washington retains the political will, and President Trump retains the political will, to continue efforts toward a peaceful settlement in Ukraine.
“We support these efforts, and Russia remains open to entering into peace talks.”
Some Russian nationalists have suggested Trump’s remarks indicated he would distance himself from efforts to put an end to the war, now more than half way through its fourth year. The Kremlin previously said it believed Trump’s rhetoric was influenced by the fact he had just met Zelenskiy.
It was not immediately clear whether Trump would back up his words with a shift in U.S. actions. Some analysts and European officials told Reuters said they believed his words were a signal to Europe that it was time for the continent’s leaders to step up to the plate and do more to meet Kyiv’s needs for weapons and financing.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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