RE: Let's hope for a just peace15 Dec 2025 20:43
Russia and Ukraine 'on the verge' of deal to end war, deputy foreign minister says
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told ABC News during an exclusive interview on Monday that he believes the warring parties are "on the verge" of a diplomatic solution to end Moscow's war.
"We are prepared to have a deal," Ryabkov said of Russian President Vladimir Putin's government. The deputy foreign minister added that he hoped an agreement would be reached "sooner rather than later."
U.S. administration officials signaled on Monday that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine may be closer than ever, telling reporters on the condition of anonymity that "literally 90%" of the issues between the two warring countries had been solved.
But Ryabkov also reiterated long-held demands from Moscow that Kyiv says it cannot accept as part of any peace deal. Among those is Russian control of Crimea, which was occupied in 2014, and four other partially-occupied territories -- Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson -- in the south and east of Ukraine.
Ryabkov -- a high-profile figure within Russia's Foreign Ministry who regularly speaks with international media outlets -- has served as the deputy foreign minister in Moscow since 2008, working under Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who has been in his post since 2004.
Ryabkov was among those Russian officials downplaying the threat looming over Ukraine in the lead up to Moscow's full-scale invasion of its neighbor. As Russian troops massed along Ukraine's borders in January 2022, Ryabkov said Moscow had "no intention of attacking, staging an offensive on or invading Ukraine."
Speaking with ABC News on Monday, the deputy foreign minister refused to refer to Russia's ongoing invasion as a war, instead using the Kremlin's preferred phrase of a "special military operation."
"We do what we do, we want to stop it and whether it would be stopped depends much on how people who support authorities in Kyiv recognize the inevitable outcome of our success," Ryabkov said.
Russian officials have framed their invasion as a necessary measure to protect ethnic Russians living in Ukraine. When asked about the suffering and deaths of members of that community as a result of Moscow's war, Ryabkov said he had sympathy for those affected.
"The whole purpose of what is being done by us there is to ensure that at least some of those people, majority of those people, find it better and find it, I would say, more appropriate to be where they belong, which is Russia."
Ryabkov has regularly commented on various aspects of U.S.-Russian relations during the ongoing war. He has, for example, repeatedly called for renewed focus on bilateral nuclear and arms control treaties.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-and-ukraine-on-the-verge-of-deal-to-end-war-deputy-foreign-minister-says/ar-AA1SoRkg?ocid=BingNewsVerp
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