Kremlin says it wants war to end but peace process is ‘stalled’

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Monday it wanted the Ukraine war to end as soon as possible but that efforts to resolve it had stalled.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to remarks on Friday by U.S. President Donald Trump, who said at a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban last Friday: “I think we agree that the war is going to end in the not too distant future.”

Peskov, briefing reporters, restated the Kremlin’s position that the war could end once Russia achieved its goals, and it would prefer to do this by political and diplomatic means.

“But there is currently a pause, the situation is stalled. It is stalled not through our fault,” he said, blaming Ukraine.

Ukraine and its European allies reject Moscow’s charge that it is blocking peace efforts. No face-to-face talks between Russia and Ukraine have taken place since July 23.

Trump has tried to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to meet, but the Kremlin has said such a summit could only take place in Moscow – a condition that Zelenskiy rejects. He has repeatedly said he does not believe that Putin is serious about seeking peace.

Peskov said it was Kyiv that did not want to continue the conversation.

“They are being egged on in every way by the Europeans, who believe that Ukraine can win the war and secure its interests by military means,” he said.

He said that was a deep delusion, given the situation on the battle front.

As the war approaches the end of its fourth year, Russia holds about 19% of Ukrainian territory and is pushing hard to take the cities of Pokrovsk and Kupiansk.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Anastasia Teterevleva and Mark Trevelyan)