Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev said Friday that Moscow, Washington and Kyiv are “reasonably close” to reaching a diplomatic solution to end the war in Ukraine but accused Britain and other European countries of pressuring Kyiv to stall peace talks.
Speaking on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper, Dmitriev – who also heads the Russian Direct Investment Fund – said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s recent acknowledgment of battlefield realities marked “a big move” toward negotiations.
“I believe Russia, the U.S. and Ukraine are actually quite close to a diplomatic solution,” Dmitriev said. “His previous position was that Russia should leave completely, so actually, I think we are reasonably close to a diplomatic solution that can be worked out.”
At the same time, Dmitriev accused Kyiv of dragging its feet on negotiations at the urging of Western allies. “Ukraine is disrupting the process at the request of the British, at the request of the Europeans, who want the conflict to continue,” he told reporters during his visit to Washington, according to Russia’s Tass news agency.
The envoy said he planned to brief U.S. officials on what he described as Ukraine’s unwillingness “to resolve the problems, the accumulated issues that need to be addressed.”
Dmitriev also confirmed that a meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin is expected to take place “at a later date,” though no timeline has been set. He is in Washington as part of ongoing talks on investment and economic cooperation with foreign partners.
