MOSCOW — Russia has told the United States that a complete cessation of American support for Kyiv is an essential prerequisite for ending the war in Ukraine, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday, following high-level communications between Washington and Moscow.
Speaking to state broadcaster VGTRK, Ushakov said President Vladimir Putin outlined specific steps the White House could take during a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday, as the American administration ramps up efforts to broker a diplomatic settlement.
“First and foremost… they should stop providing any assistance to Kyiv,” Ushakov said, emphasizing that Moscow views lingering indirect and operational support from Washington as a primary obstacle to peace.
While Washington has halted direct bilateral military and budgetary assistance to Ukraine, European allies continue to procure U.S.-manufactured munitions and hardware for Kyiv through NATO procurement channels. Crucially, U.S. intelligence agencies also continue real-time data sharing, enabling Ukrainian forces to track Russian movements and conduct precision strikes deep inside Russian-controlled territory and border regions. Moscow has signaled that this operational support must end before significant diplomatic concessions will be considered.
Envoys Shuttle Between Capitals
The diplomatic maneuver follows a high-stakes weekend mission by U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who traveled to Moscow and made an unprecedented visit to Kyiv in an effort to overcome months of diplomatic stalemate.
Officials familiar with the discussions indicated that the American delegation presented revised framework proposals. However, no immediate breakthrough materialized, with Western officials noting that Moscow appears determined to maintain military pressure across the eastern front.
Following his meeting with the U.S. delegation in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky struck a sober tone, acknowledging that a near-term diplomatic resolution remains improbable.
“The war will continue into the winter months,” Zelensky told reporters, pointing to Russia’s sustained frontline offensives and air campaigns against Ukrainian infrastructure.
A Return to Abu Dhabi
The primary concrete deliverable from the recent shuttle diplomacy is an agreement in principle to resume trilateral talks involving Ukrainian, Russian, and American representatives.
Ushakov confirmed that the Kremlin remains open to reviving this trilateral channel, with the United Arab Emirates viewed as the preferred setting. Abu Dhabi previously hosted intermittent discussions between Russian and Ukrainian delegations, which failed to yield political settlements but facilitated substantial humanitarian deliverables, including several high-profile prisoner-of-war exchanges.
“We’re talking about resuming the negotiation process with Ukraine that took place previously,” Ushakov said. “We’ve discussed this with our American colleagues, so it’s possible that this process will resume in a trilateral format.”
Core Demands Remain at Odds
Despite the prospective reopening of diplomatic channels, the core strategic positions of Moscow and Kyiv remain sharply opposed:
- Moscow’s Demands: Putin reiterated to U.S. envoys that Russia will not halt hostilities until it achieves its stated strategic goals and addresses what the Kremlin characterizes as the conflict’s “root causes”—namely Ukraine’s NATO ambitions and alignment with the West. The Kremlin continues to demand full sovereignty over the Donbas and other partially occupied provinces, while refusing an unconditional ceasefire that would leave the Ukrainian military intact and rearming.
- Kyiv’s Demands: The Ukrainian leadership insists on an immediate cessation of hostilities along current front lines, coupled with binding, multilateral security guarantees from Western partners to deter future incursions. Kyiv maintains that ceding sovereign territory or accepting enforced neutrality without robust defensive pacts would merely provide Moscow an operational pause to reconstitute its forces.
With both sides entrenched in their strategic demands and battlefield operations intensifying ahead of winter, the revival of trilateral talks in the Gulf offers a rare diplomatic opening, even as the path toward an enforceable peace remains deeply uncertain.
