Meloni to Zelensky: 'Support US commitment to peace path'. Moscow: changes to plan needed
Moscow, 'Russia no longer defined as threat by US, positive'
For Moscow, 'radical changes' to the peace plan are needed to end the war between Russia and Ukraine before it is acceptable to Russia. This was stated by Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin's foreign policy advisor, as quoted by the Russian media. The US will have to 'make serious, I would say radical, changes to its documents' on Ukraine, he said, as reported by SkyNews. These comments follow those of Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy for Ukraine, according to whom an agreement to end the war is 'really close'.
The changes adopted by Donald Trump on national security strategy - which harshly criticises Europe evoking the risk of "erasure of civilisation" - are "consistent" with Moscow's vision and can ensure "constructive work" with the US on the Ukrainian solution. This was said by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov quoted by Tass. "The adjustments are largely consistent with our vision," he noted. "Perhaps we can hope that this can be a modest guarantee that we will be able to constructively continue the joint work to find a peaceful solution in Ukraine."
Despite its war on Ukraine, Russia is no longer a threat to the US. The change in the US national security strategy by US President Donald Trump's administration, in which Russia is not mentioned as a "direct threat", is a positive step, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Tass news agency. "We consider this a positive step," Peskov said, adding that the message on Russia-US relations sent by Trump differs from the approaches of previous US administrations. "Overall, these messages are certainly in contrast to previous approaches," the Russian spokesman said, specifying that the Kremlin will examine the updated US national security strategy "in more detail" and analyse its provisions.
The Russian reaction to Trump's national security strategy document comes twenty-four hours after the reaction of the EU, which stated through a Commission spokesperson: "When it comes to decisions that affect the European Union, these are taken by the European Union for the European Union, including those relating to our regulatory autonomy, the protection of freedom of speech and the rules-based international order. This is the EU's response to both the US National Security Strategy document released yesterday by the White House and the criticism that came from the US over the 120 million euro fine against the social platform X for violations of the Digital Services Act.
The EU Commission, the spokesman said, "welcomes" the priority to end the war between Ukraine and Russia indicated in the White House document and "notes" the strategy's focus on developments in the western hemisphere. Brussels agrees with the statement that 'Europe remains strategically and culturally vital to the United States' and that 'transatlantic trade remains one of the pillars of the global economy and American prosperity'.
