By Dmitry Antonov
MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Tuesday that pausing U.S. military aid to Ukraine would be the best contribution to the cause of peace, but cautioned that Russia needed to clarify the details of the move by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump has paused military aid to Ukraine following his clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week, a White House official said, deepening the fissure that has opened between the one-time allies.
Trump, who spoke to Putin on February 12 and says he wants to be remembered as a “peace maker”, has upended U.S. policy on the war in Ukraine which he says risks igniting World War Three. Trump also says Kyiv has no cards left to play.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cautious on reports of a pause in U.S. aid and said the details needed to be seen.
“If this is true, then this is a decision that can really encourage the Kyiv regime to (come to) the peace process,” Peskov said.
“It is obvious that the United States has been the main supplier of this war so far. If the United States stops being (an arms supplier) or suspends these supplies, it will probably be the best contribution to the cause of peace.”
Peskov said that Russia welcomed Trump’s statements about his wish for peace in Ukraine.
“We hear his statement about his desire to bring peace to Ukraine, and this is welcome. We see certain things and receive certain information about the proposed actions in this direction. This is also welcome. But we will continue to see how the situation develops in reality,” Peskov said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022, triggering the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces fighting Ukraine’s armed forces.
Russia currently controls just under a fifth of Ukraine, or about 113,000 square km of Ukraine while Ukraine controls about 450 square km of Russia, according to open source maps of the war and Russian estimates.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mark Trevelyan/Andrew Osborn)
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