Russia said its position "remains unchanged" as it responded to U.S. President Donald Trump's latest call to freeze the war in Ukraine along the current frontlines.
The Kremlin has previously rejected calls for a ceasefire, saying it thinks Ukraine would use a pause in the fighting to rearm and regroup, and so would rather go straight to negotiating a full peace deal instead. It has also demanded that Ukraine cede more of its territory to Russia than Moscow currently controls.
“This topic has been raised repeatedly, with various nuances, during Russian-American contacts, and the Russian side has always given the same response, which is well known: Russia’s position remains unchanged,” said Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov at a press briefing on Monday, Interfax reported.
Why It Matters
Peskov’s comments mark Moscow’s first response to Trump since he told reporters that the frontline in Ukraine should be frozen ahead of ceasefire talks. They also suggest that the Kremlin’s war aims in Ukraine remain unchanged and that Moscow is focusing on the summit between Trump and Vladimir Putin in Budapest.
What To Know
Last month, Trump said that Kyiv could recapture all the territories occupied by Russia but on Sunday appeared to change tack saying that both sides should “stop at the battle lines” ahead of negotiations.
This followed his White House meeting with Zelensky in which Kyiv had hoped to secure a deal on U.S. Tomahawk missiles, but was instead pressed on Putin's territorial demands, it was reported.
But Peskov appeared to play down the U.S. president’s comments that a ceasefire along the line of contact in Ukraine could precede peace talks which he dismissed as a “newspaper report” adding there were “many statements on this matter.”
The Kremlin has said that Moscow would seek to advance peace talks when the Russian and U.S. presidents meet in Budapest, although a date for the summit has not been set.
"There is no detail yet on the meeting that the two presidents discussed," Peskov said, according to Russian state media.
Trump’s comments followed his meeting with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Kyiv had hoped to secure a deal on U.S. Tomahawk missiles, but was instead pressed on Putin's territorial demands, it was reported.
A day before the White House meeting, Putin called Trump in which the Russian president demanded that Kyiv hand over full control of the Donetsk oblast, according to The Washington Post, citing sources familiar with the matter.
This would hand Putin an advantage as well as control of a region which analysts say could otherwise take years to fully occupy.
Trump denied pressuring Zelensky to cede territories that Russia partly occupies as part of any deal while speaking on Air Force One on Sunday but had referred to Ukrainian land as "property" that Moscow had "won" in an interview on Fox News's Sunday Morning Futures.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump: "What I say is they should stop right now at the battle lines, go home, stop killing people and be done."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, per Tass: “This topic was repeatedly raised in various forms during contacts between Russia and the U.S. The Russian side answered every time, this answer is well known: the consistency of Russia's position doesn't change."
Yevhen Mahda, a Ukrainian political expert, told The Kyiv Independent: "Donald Trump's logic is simple: he needs applause and success—everything else matters little to him...unfortunately, in Russian-American relations...Trump is losing the initiative."
What Happens Next
Ahead of the summit between Trump and Putin in Budapest the Russian Foreign Ministry has teased an imminent phone call between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in which the war, as well ties between Washington and Moscow will be discussed, state news agency Interfax reported.
Meanwhile, Zelensky said Monday that he would be ready to join Putin and Trump in Budapest if he were invited.
Update 10/20/25, 11:09 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
