Kremlin says U.S. position ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine gives satisfaction

By Dmitry Antonov and Guy Faulconbridge

The Kremlin said on Monday that the position of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine gave Moscow satisfaction, but declined to comment on Trump's hopes for a peace deal this week.

Trump, seeking to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly said he wants to end the "bloodbath" of the three-year conflict in Ukraine - which his administration casts as a proxy war between the United States and Russia.

U.S. envoy General Keith Kellogg said on Sunday that NATO alliance membership was "off the table" for Ukraine. Trump has said past U.S. support for that was a cause of the war.

"We have heard from Washington at various levels that Ukraine's membership in NATO is excluded," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "Of course, this is something that causes us satisfaction and coincides with our position."

Ukrainian membership of the U.S.-led alliance would threaten Russian interests, Peskov added. "And, in fact, this is one of the root causes of this conflict."

President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in 2022, triggering the worst confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War.

Former U.S. President Joe Biden, Western European leaders and Ukraine cast the invasion as an imperial-style land grab and repeatedly vowed to defeat Russian forces.

Putin casts the war as a watershed moment in Moscow's relations with the West which he says humiliated Russia after the Soviet Union fell in 1991 by enlarging NATO and encroaching on what he considers Moscow's sphere of influence.

At the 2008 Bucharest summit, NATO leaders agreed that Ukraine and Georgia would one day become members. Ukraine in 2019 amended its constitution committing to the path of full membership of NATO and the European Union.

PEACE DEAL?

Putin has repeatedly said Russia would be willing to end the war if Ukraine drops its NATO ambitions and withdraws troops from the entirety of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.

Reuters reported in November that Putin was ready to negotiate a deal with Trump, but would refuse to make major territorial concessions and would insist Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.

Trump said on Sunday he hopes Russia and Ukraine will make a deal this week to end the conflict.

"BOTH WILL THEN START TO DO BIG BUSINESS WITH THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WHICH IS THRIVING, AND MAKE A FORTUNE!" Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

The Russian rouble traded close to 80 to the U.S. dollar on Monday, the highest level against the dollar since June 2024. The rouble has risen by over 40% against the dollar since the beginning of the year on expectations of peace.

Asked about Trump's remarks, Peskov said: "I don't want to make any comments right now, especially about the timeframe.

"President Putin and the Russian side remain open to seeking a peaceful settlement. We are continuing to work with the American side and, of course, we hope that this work will yield results."

He refused to comment directly on a Bloomberg report that the United States is prepared to recognise Russian control of Crimea as part of a broader peace agreement.

"Work on finding a peaceful settlement cannot take place, and should not take place, in public," Peskov said. "It should take place in an absolutely discrete mode."