Vladimir Putin digs in over Ukraine peace deal demands after talks with Donald Trump

Vladimir Putin was digging in over any possible Ukraine peace deal after talks with Donald Trump.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who oversees US relations and arms control, said on Monday that all of Putin’s conditions for ending the war in Ukraine must be met before any settlement is possible.

Putin set out in June his terms for an immediate end to the war which included that Ukraine must drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four eastern Ukrainian provinces claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.

Ryabkov said that the sooner the United States and the West understood that all of Putin’s conditions needed to be met, the sooner there would be a settlement in Ukraine.

Kyiv has refused to accept Putin’s demands.

Trump says he has spoken to Putin about ending the war, though, the Kremlin has declined to confirm this had happened,

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy stressed last year that there was no evidence that Putin really wanted to end his war in Ukraine despite the high Russian military losses and sanctions hitting his country’s economy.

The West, including Britain, have signalled it is ready to send peace-keeping troops to Ukraine.

Before becoming president, Trump claimed he could end the conflict in a day, but this was swiftly put back to a 100-day timeframe.

Putin has been seeking to seize as much territory in Ukraine ahead of possible peace talks, even if it means his army suffering heavy casualties.

Ryabkov praised the Trump administration for indicating its interest in talking to Russia about the conflict in Ukraine and said Moscow was ready for dialogue “on an equal basis.”

Any talks on Ukraine would have to address the root causes of the conflict and recognise the “reality on the ground,” he added, warning any ultimatums to Moscow would fail.

Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, told allies in recent meetings that he was preparing options to end the war in Ukraine, news website Semafor reported on Monday, citing three unnamed Western officials.

Meanwhile, Ryabkov, said the outlook for Russia-US talks on nuclear strategic stability did not look promising.

The Kremlin, commenting last month after Trump said he wanted to work towards cutting nuclear arms, said that the Russian President had made clear he wanted to restart nuclear arms cuts talks as soon as possible.

But Ryabkov said that the US wanted three-way arms talks, including China, while Moscow wanted five-way arms talks.

Russia has said it wants Britain and France - also nuclear powers - to be included in any new nuclear arms control talks.

The UK has led the way in arming Ukraine, first with anti-tank weapons, then Challenger II tanks, and Storm Shadow missiles.

Britain has also supplied drones to Ukraine for the war which has seen an unprecedented use of unmanned aircraft, including for long range attacks of more than 900 miles.

Both Moscow and Kyiv have come under attack by drones.