Moscow, Kyiv and Washington are close to reaching a “diplomatic solution” to end the war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s Special Envoy Kirill Dmitriev told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview on Friday after arriving in the US for talks with White House officials.
Though Dmitriev did not offer any details of how a peace settlement might look, he described himself as “sure” that US President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war would “lead to a result”.
Dmitriev added that while Russia had thus far refused to cease hostilities as it sought “a final solution to the conflict” rather than “just a ceasefire”, Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky’s openness to using the current battlefield front lines as a starting point for negotiations was a “big move” that could help bring Moscow to the table.
“His previous position was that Russia should leave [eastern Ukraine] completely” Dmitriev said. “So actually, I think we are reasonably close to a diplomatic solution that can be worked out”.
Earlier this week, Reuters reported that Russia had shared a communiqué with the US reiterating its demand for full control over Ukraine’s Donbas region, just under 90% of which it currently occupies, as a precondition for any future peace deal.
That report came just days after a meeting between Trump and Zelensky at the White House, during which the US president reportedly told Zelensky to accept Putin’s terms for ending the war — including ceding the entire Donbas — warning that otherwise Russia would “destroy” Ukraine.
While Dmitriev insisted that the sole consequences of the newly introduced US sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, would be “high gasoline prices in the US” and Russia selling “less oil at a higher price”, he is expected to meet with Trump administration officials including Special Envoy Steve Witkoff over the weekend to discuss the new measures.
Dmitriev also said that Trump had “postponed” rather than cancelled his planned summit with Putin in Budapest and that Moscow remained committed to dialogue on the war despite its continued missile and drone strikes on Ukraine, which he claimed only targeted military sites.
“Dialogue is important. Only through dialogue can conflict be solved. I think it’s important to understand the Russian position, Russian security concerns”, Dmitriev said.
Last week, Dmitriev made headlines by proposing the construction of a “Putin-Trump tunnel” under the Bering Strait that would link Russia’s eastern Chukchi Peninsula with Alaska, an idea the US president called “interesting”.