From ABC News: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told ABC News during an exclusive interview on Monday that he believes the warring parties are “on the verge” of a diplomatic solution to end Moscow’s war.
“We are prepared to have a deal,” Ryabkov said of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government. The deputy foreign minister added that he hoped an agreement would be reached “sooner rather than later.”
U.S. administration officials signaled on Monday that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine may be closer than ever, telling reporters on the condition of anonymity that “literally 90%” of the issues between the two warring countries had been solved.
But Ryabkov also reiterated long-held demands from Moscow that Kyiv says it cannot accept as part of any peace deal. Among those is Russian control of Crimea, which was occupied in 2014, and four other partially-occupied territories — Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — in the south and east of Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has insisted multiple times that Ukraine will not be ceding any territory over to Russia.
Meanwhile, Russia is vehemently opposing the possible deployment of troops from NATO nations to Ukraine after the war, and declares they will not agree to a deal that includes NATO presence on Ukrainian soil.
Instead of referring to the conflict as “war,” Russian authorities continue to use the term “special military operation.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told @ABC during an exclusive interview on Monday that he believes the warring parties are "on the verge" of a diplomatic solution to end Moscow's war. https://t.co/tygiTrBbYS
— ABC News (@ABC) December 15, 2025
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