Vladimir Putin rips up Donald Trump's Ukraine peace deal: 'Cannot accept!'

By Alice Scarsi, World News Editor

Vladimir Putin will not agree to the US deal to end the war in Ukraine (Image: Getty)

Russia "cannot accept" the terms of the peace deal drafted by the US, according to an official. The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said the Kremlin has looked seriously at the proposal coming from Washington that would bring the war in Ukraine to an end.

But the plan, he claimed, doesn't take into account the "root causes" of the war. Dashing hopes for peace once again, the official said: "We take the models and solutions proposed by the Americans very seriously, but we can't accept it all in its current form." Speaking to the magazine International Affairs, Mr Ryabkov added: "As far as we can see, there is no place in them today for our main demand, namely to solve the problems related to the root causes of this conflict.

"It is completely absent, and that must be overcome."

Vladimir Putin ordered the illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, in February 2022.

Upon declaring war in a televised speech, he declared the objective of the so-called "special military operation" was to "demilitarise and denazify" Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly claimed without providing evidence that Ukraine is led by a Nazi regime - despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky being born to Jewish parents.

The interview comes days after US President Donald Trump lashed out at Putin, voicing his frustration at the lack of cooperation in Moscow to bring the war to a swift end - a major pledge the American leader made during his electoral campaign.

The US President said on the weekend Putin's criticism of Mr Zelensky. He told NBC News: "You could say that I was very angry, pissed off, when... Putin started getting into Zelensky's credibility, because that's not going in the right location."