Russia said on Wednesday that the US has not informed of any changes to its position concerning a settlement in Ukraine.
“The Americans themselves did not communicate any change in their position to us in bilateral contacts,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a press briefing in Moscow.
She said US President Donald Trump's commitment to facilitating a settlement in principle is “not in doubt,” and the Russian side has repeatedly noted that the possibilities of ending the Ukraine war were discussed in detail in Alaska, where Trump and President Vladimir Putin held a summit last August.
Zakharova said that although no formal agreements were signed at the summit, both sides “reached certain understandings.”
“Moreover, as Russian President Vladimir Putin noted in a recent interview, at the Alaska summit, the Russian side declared its willingness to make certain compromises. And we urge that the results of that summit be assessed in precisely this light,” the spokeswoman added.
Some Russian officials have accused the US of drifting away from “understandings” reached in Alaska.
But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Moscow and Washington did not reach any agreements when Trump and Putin met. “There was a proposal in Alaska, but there was no agreement in Alaska. If there had been an agreement, we would have had an end to the war,” Rubio said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called Rubio’s remarks “inelegant,” calling for “clarification” concerning the “entire situation” regarding the US role as a mediator in the war that continues since 2022.
Meanwhile, Zakharova accused EU countries of continuing their attempts to persuade the US to accept Ukraine’s demands, particularly those undertaken at the G7 meeting in France earlier this month, and reiterated Moscow’s demand for Ukraine’s withdrawal from the Donbas region.
She said Russia will only negotiate with those who "responsibly approach the task of achieving a fair and sustainable settlement, who make constructive proposals that take into account the realities on the ground, the results of previous negotiating rounds, the outcome of the Russian-American summit in Alaska, and Russia's principled position on a final resolution to the conflict based on the irreversible elimination of its root causes."
Zakharova also expressed Russia's view opposing the deployment of US intermediate- and shorter-range missiles in Japan, defining it as a step that has a "serious negative impact and influence on the stability and security of the Asia-Pacific region and creates a direct threat to Russia's Far Eastern borders."
"We have repeatedly warned the Japanese side against such destructive steps. And we are forced to warn that they will not be left without our compensatory measures aimed at strengthening our national defense," she added.
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