Moscow agrees with Trump that Ukraine is holding up a peace deal, the
Kremlin says
[January 16, 2026]
Moscow agrees with U.S. President Donald Trump’s view that Ukraine is
holding up a peace deal to end the almost four years of fighting since
Russia invaded its neighbor, a Kremlin official said Thursday.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “Yes, we can agree with it,
it’s indeed so.” His comments came after Trump said in published remarks
Wednesday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is an obstacle in
U.S.-led peace talks.
That assessment is at odds with the sentiment of European officials, who
have repeatedly accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of stalling in
negotiations while his bigger army tries to push deeper into Ukraine and
Russia relentlessly bombards Ukrainian cities.
Kyiv and Moscow still appear publicly far apart on their terms for a
peace deal.
“I think he’s ready to make a deal,” Trump was quoted as saying of the
Russian president in an interview with Reuters. “I think Ukraine is less
ready to make a deal,” he said, naming Zelenskyy as obstructing a
settlement.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who along with many European and NATO
member nations has strongly backed Ukraine, pushed back on Trump’s
reported comments.
“It is Russia who rejected the peace plan prepared by the U.S.,” not
Zelenskyy, Tusk posted on X on Thursday. “The only Russian response
(was) further missile attacks on Ukrainian cities. This is why the only
solution is to strengthen pressure on Russia. And you all know it.”
Putin said Thursday that Moscow, like Ukraine, demands security
guarantees as part of a prospective peace deal.
“We must proceed from the premise that security must be truly universal,
and therefore equal and indivisible, and it cannot be ensured for some
at the expense of the security of others,” Putin said after receiving
credentials from foreign ambassadors in the Kremlin.
“In the absence of it, Russia will continue to consistently pursue the
goals it has set,” Putin added.
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Ukrainian police officers work at the site of a Russian drone strike
on a children playground near a monument to Stepan Bandera, a
founder of a rebel army that fought against the Soviet regime, in
Lviv, western Ukraine, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Mykola Tys)
Trump’s position appeared to deviate from recent comments by U.S.
officials that the American president is running out of patience
with Putin.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said last week that Trump is on
board with a tough sanctions package intended to economically
cripple Russia.
“This will be well-timed, as Ukraine is making concessions for peace
and Putin is all talk, continuing to kill the innocent,” Graham said
in a statement.
Also, the United States accused Russia on Monday of a “dangerous and
inexplicable escalation” of its war at a time when the Trump
administration is trying to advance negotiations toward peace.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said
late Wednesday that “the Kremlin has been delaying the peace process
for months in order to protract the war and achieve Russia’s
original war aims through military means.”
A Russian drone struck a playground in the western city of Lviv
overnight, according to the head of the regional military
administration Maksym Kozytskyi. The blast shattered over a hundred
windows in the area, though nobody was injured, he said.
Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said that no date has been agreed for
U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff to make another visit to
Moscow for further peace talks.
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