Russia rejects peace agreement, insisting its war in Ukraine will rage on 'for the foreseeable future'

A demonstrator holds a sign during a peaceful stand for Ukraine rally in Boston, Massachusetts.

Vincent Ricci/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

• Russia has no interest in a peace agreement at this time, an official told The New York Times.
• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there are "currently no grounds" for a deal with Ukraine.
• "We will continue the operation for the foreseeable future," Peskov said.

Moscow has no interest in any proposed deal to end the war in Ukraine, a Kremlin spokesperson told the New York Times in an interview published Sunday. 

The admission, which was promoted by Russian state media, comes amid claims by some American politicians that the United States could broker an agreement by withholding arms and urging Ukraine to make territorial concessions.

"There are currently no grounds for an agreement," the Kremlin's Dmitry Peskov told The New York Times. "We will continue the operation for the foreseeable future."

Russia had previously accused the US and other Western governments of undermining efforts to negotiate an end to hostilities.

The rejection of a peace deal comes as critics of US military aid to Kyiv — including former President Donald Trump — have insisted that such an agreement could be quickly reached, especially if Ukraine were pressured to make concessions.

It also follows a summit in Saudi Arabia over the weekend, where involving diplomats from countries such as China, India, and the US — but not Russia — discussed the war. There, Ukraine pitched a 10-point peace plan that calls for the withdrawal of all Russian forces from its territory.

Russia has flatly rejected calls for it to leave Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the country as a fiction that wrongly gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Last September, he also announced the illegal annexation of four regions in eastern Ukraine, stating that their residents "will become Russian citizens forever," a claim made despite the fact that Russia does not control large swaths of the territory in question.

Speaking to the Times, Peskov claimed that Russia has no intention of trying to annex all of the country.

However, Russian officials have also previously said they cannot tolerate an independent Ukraine that aligns itself with the West.

"We just want to control all the land we have now written into our constitution as ours," he said.

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