Russia has rejected a Ukraine war peace deal proposed by Donald Trump, the US president, because it does not grant international recognition to territory seized by Moscow’s troops.
Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, also suggested the plan did not satisfy the Kremlin’s demands to oust
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, and limit the size of Kyiv’s armed forces.
The rejection came as
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, offered a temporary, 72-hour truce next month to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe.
The White House said Mr Trump, who is pushing for a deal to be agreed this week, wanted to see a “permanent ceasefire” but said he was growing “increasingly frustrated” with the leaders of both
Russia and Ukraine.
Ukraine responded to Putin’s truce offer by calling for a month-long pause in the fighting to negotiate a more long-term peace settlement.
The remarks by Lavrov, the most senior Russian official to directly comment on Mr Trump’s take-it-or-leave it proposals, represent a hardening of Moscow’s position.
Russia’s lead diplomat said the “international recognition” of his country’s sovereignty over Crimea, as well as the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, which are only partially occupied by Russian forces, was “imperative”.
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