Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime suggested relations between Washington, D.C., and Moscow are on ‘the brink’ of collapse this week.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov made the announcement during a Monday press conference. Ryabkov reiterated Putin’s stance that there would be no peace in Ukraine unless the country dropped its ambitions to join NATO and ceded Russian-occupied regions.
‘We simply imperatively need to get … the new U.S. administration to understand and acknowledge that without resolving the problems that are the root causes of the crisis in Ukraine, it will not be possible to reach an agreement,’ Ryabkov said.
While President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he has spoken to Putin, a spokesman for the Russian leader declined to confirm the call this week.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that he expects to have ‘many more conversations. We have to get that war ended.’
‘I hate to see all these young people being killed. The soldiers are being killed by the hundreds of thousands,’ he added.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing to meet with Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference later this week after confirming on Friday he is ready to ‘do a deal’ with President Donald Trump.
According to an interview with Reuters, Zelenskyy said he was ready to supply the U.S. with rare-earth minerals in exchange for Washington’s continued backing of its war effort.
‘If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal, we are only for it,’ Zelenskyy said.
The Ukrainian president has made clear he is also open to engaging in peace talks with Russia to end the three-year-long war, though possible terms for securing a peace deal remain varied and unknown.
Though Zelenskyy has said he is looking for ‘guarantees’ when it comes to future security assurances for the war-torn country.
These security assurances will likely need to be more than a formal handshake paired with a signed document, as Russia has twice violated its last agreement with Ukraine, known as the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.
Zelenskyy apparently first floated the idea of trading Ukraine’s mineral resources – roughly 20% of which are located in now Russian-controlled territory, including half of the rare-earth variety – under his ‘victory plan’ first presented to Western allies last fall, reported Reuters.