Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov claimed Moscow is prepared for a peace deal but refuses to compromise on territorial demands, ABC News reports following an exclusive interview conducted Monday in Moscow.
"We are prepared to have a deal," Ryabkov said, adding he hoped an agreement would be reached "sooner rather than later."
US administration officials told ABC News that "literally 90%" of issues between Russia and Ukraine had been resolved, suggesting a peace deal may be closer than previously thought.
However, Ryabkov reiterated Moscow's long-held territorial demands that Kyiv has consistently rejected. Russia insists on control over Crimea, occupied in 2014, and four occupied territories in southern and eastern Ukraine: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
"We have five altogether and we are not able, in any form, to compromise on this," Ryabkov said of Russia's control of the territories.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly ruled out territorial concessions to Russia.
The deputy foreign minister also rejected any NATO troop presence in Ukraine after the war, even as part of security guarantees or the so-called "Coalition of the Willing."
"We definitely will not at any moment subscribe to, agree to, or even be content with, any presence of NATO troops on the Ukrainian territory," Ryabkov claimed.
Both Moscow and Kyiv are working with American representatives on the White House's latest peace push to end Russia's full-scale invasion, which began in February 2022.
During the interview, Ryabkov refused to call Russia's actions a war, using instead the Kremlin's preferred term "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.
Ryabkov has served as deputy foreign minister since 2008 under Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. In January 2022, as Russian troops massed along Ukraine's borders, Ryabkov said Moscow had "no intention of attacking, staging an offensive on or invading Ukraine."
Last month, Ryabkov told state-owned International Affairs magazine that a meeting between former President Trump and Putin was possible as peace talks continued. "I wouldn't rule anything out," he said.
The deputy foreign minister has also called for renewed focus on bilateral nuclear and arms control treaties, though he stated this month that progress "will only become possible for us after we become convinced of substantive and irreversible improvements in Washington's policy toward Russia."
