Russia pleased with Zelenskiy's comments on US stance over Donbas

By Olesya Astakhova

MOSCOW, March 26 (Reuters) - Russia ‌is pleased about ​Ukrainian ​President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's remarks that Washington has tied its offer of security guarantees to Kyiv surrendering the eastern Donbas region, a senior Kremlin official said on Thursday.

Zelenskiy's ‌comment, which he made in an interview with Reuters, "can't help but make us ⁠happy", Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev told reporters on Thursday.

"He said an important thing... he finally understood that the ‌U.S. position is that they'll only ‌support security guarantees if Ukraine quits Donbas," Dmitriev said.

Zelenskiy told Reuters that amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, President Donald Trump was applying pressure to Kyiv in an effort to ​bring an end to the four-year war triggered by Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

While acknowledging the U.S. stance on Donbas, Zelenskiy said Washington needed to understand "that the eastern part of ⁠our country is part of our security guarantees". He wants robust security guarantees from international partners to ensure that Russia does ​not restart hostilities in the future, after any peace deal is agreed.

FURTHER U.S.-RUSSIA TALKS

Dmitriev, Russia's key negotiator in bilateral talks with the U.S., has held ​multiple meetings with special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared ‌Kushner, who is Trump's son-in-law.

He said that negotiations between Moscow and Washington on future economic cooperation were continuing, and that Russia's foes were 'in a state ⁠of madness' about this. He said that raising funds for the reconstruction of areas destroyed by the war was among the topics being discussed.

As an example, he said the U.S. played a "positive and constructive" role in ⁠the European Union's decision last year not to seize 210 billion euros ($240 billion) worth of Russian sovereign assets for a loan ​to Ukraine.

Dmitriev stressed that the ongoing negotiations with the U.S. did not prevent Russia from taking tough actions elsewhere if needed, citing "provocations, including from the EU and Britain, against our fleet, which they are trying to ‌arrest".

Russia has also informed the U.S. of recent drone attacks by Ukraine on Russian energy infrastructure, which he called an attempt to exacerbate the ‌global energy crisis, he said.

At least 40% of Russia's oil export capacity is at a halt following ⁠Ukrainian drone attacks, a disputed attack on ‌a major pipeline and the ​seizure of tankers, according to Reuters calculations. This is the most severe oil supply disruption in the modern history of Russia.

(Writing by Gleb Bryanski, editting by ‌Andrei Khalip)

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