🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with TASS News Agency (December 28, 2025)

Key points

• Russia appreciates efforts by President of the United States Donald Trump and his team to achieve a peace settlement. We are committed to continuing to work with the American negotiators to devise lasting agreements for addressing the conflict’s root causes.

We see that Vladimir Zelensky’s regime and his European curators are not ready to engage in constructive talks. <...> Meanwhile, almost all European countries with few exceptions have been pumping the Kiev regime full of money and weapons.

• There has been a thorough effort to review the updated version of the US National Security Strategy, which is quite understandable. Its central tenets must be supported by what the US does, but even today it offers a new vision. Experts believe that this could be indicative of an effort in Washington to reconsider its international standing. <...> 👉 Speaking of Russia, one thing worth mentioning is the fact that the strategy does not contain any calls to subject our country to a system-wide containment and deterrence policy.

It may be the first time for the United States when it publicly questioned NATO’s long-standing commitment to expansionism, even if it stopped short of undertaking not to expand NATO. <...> Some of the ideas set forth in this strategy are not at odds with efforts to promote dialogue between Russia and the United States. That said, we will make our final decisions only by looking at what the US administration does on the international stage.

• The EU has been seeking to dismantle mechanisms for working with Russia. It all started somewhere around 2014, when the ruling elites in most European countries started <...> inciting Russia-hating and militarist sentiment among their people.

• In 2025, we witnessed unprecedented events with Israel carrying out a direct act of aggression against Iran together with the United States, which targeted facilities related to the Iranian nuclear programme with missile and bomb strikes despite the fact that these facilities benefit from IAEA’s guarantees. <...> We would like to note that the Iranians have been exercising maximum restraint and composure by responding to all the provocations and blackmail on behalf of the West by stating their commitment to dialogue and resolving the lingering differences by political means.

We have shared our assessment of the situation in the Gaza Strip many times. We welcomed international mediation efforts. Thanks to these efforts the hot phase of the bloodshed that lasted since October 2023 was stopped and the mass starvation of the Palestinians prevented. <...>

The main thing here is to remedy the historical injustice and provide for establishing a viable Palestinian state, which would coexist with Israel.

• Taiwan is currently used as a tool of military-strategic deterrence against the PRC. This is also a matter of pursing vested interests. <...> We believe that the Taiwan problem is an internal affair of the PRC.

• Whether leaders like Ursula von der Leyen, Friedrich Merz, Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron and the like have reached a point of no return is hard to say. We do see that so far, the European war party has been investing its political capital in inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia, and is ready to go the whole nine yards. <...> Not only they do not care about the Ukrainians but they do not care about their people either.

This is the only way to explain the fact that there is still talk in Europe about sending military forces to Ukraine as part of the so-called coalition of the willing. We have said many times that in this case our Armed Forces would view them as a legitimate target.

❗️My messages for European politicians who seem to have problems getting to grips with this fact – I hope they get to read this interview – is to repeat one more time 👉 there is no need to be afraid of Russia attacking anyone. However, should anyone consider attacking Russia, they would face a devastating blow.

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⚡️ Comment by Aide to the President Yury Ushakov following the telephone conversation between Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump (December 28, 2025)

💬 Yury Ushakov: President Vladimir Putin has just finished his telephone conversation with President of the United States Donald Trump.

The conversation took place at the US President’s initiative. The US President wished to discuss the current developments in the context of the Ukrainian conflict and its potential resolution with the President of Russia.

President Trump wished to discuss these matters before his in-person meeting with Zelensky later today at Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

Logically, at the beginning of the conversation that continued for 1 hour and 15 minutes, the presidents exchanged warm Christmas and New Year greetings and, naturally, wished happiness to both nations.

The rest of the conversation was similarly friendly, good-natured and business-like, with mutual interest in making progress towards a long-term resolution of the Ukrainian conflict.

Donald Trump paid close attention to Russia’s assessment of the realistic prospects for an agreement, and to our President’s detailed rationale for the fundamental importance of continuing to build upon the Russian-American understandings established during the Anchorage summit and the numerous subsequent contacts between the two administrations.

Most significantly, the Russian and US presidents share a broadly similar view that the temporary ceasefire proposed by Ukraine and Europe – under the pretext of preparing for a referendum or other such measures – would merely prolong the conflict and risk a renewed escalation on the battlefield. <...>

Donald Trump repeatedly emphasised the necessity of ending the war as swiftly as possible and spoke of the impressive prospects for economic cooperation between the United States and both Russia and Ukraine that would open up once the hostilities are over.

He acknowledged that the Ukrainian crisis has been his most formidable foreign policy challenge, stating that he now saw renewed proof of Russia’s commitment to a political and diplomatic settlement. It is with this understanding that he intends to frame his forthcoming negotiations with Zelensky.

It is particularly noteworthy that during today’s conversation, the Russian President acceded to the American proposal to continue efforts to resolve the Ukrainian situation through two specially established working groups. One will address various security dimensions, and the other, economic matters. <...>

❗️ Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump agreed to speak again by telephone promptly after the US President’s meeting with the Ukrainian delegation at Mar-a-Lago this evening.

🎙 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency (December 29, 2025)

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❓ Question: In February, Russia and the United States agreed to start working on normalising their relations. In your opinion, has there been progress in this matter after almost one year? How normal can we consider the diplomatic relations between Moscow and Washington today?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: Indeed, even during the telephone conversation on February 12 – their first contact after Donald Trump’s return to the White House – the presidents of Russia and the United States agreed that it is necessary to overcome the “toxic legacy” of the Joe Biden administration as soon as possible, in the interests of normalising Russia-US relations. This work began immediately. Our contacts have become steady since then. Both sides understand the importance of comparing their positions regularly, both on bilateral issues and on the topical international problems, including the situation in Ukraine.

At the same time, this has not been an easy process. The number of aggravating circumstances remains high. The negotiation teams of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the US Department of State are focusing their efforts primarily on restoring the full-fledged operation of our diplomatic missions. Following several rounds of consultations and meetings that took place at the working level, we have reached certain agreements concerning the improvement of the work of our diplomatic missions and their staff in their respective host countries.

Now, it is important to move to more significant matters. They include resuming direct flights and recovering our seized diplomatic property. The American side has received our proposals on removing these substantial barriers that hinder tangible improvements in our relations. However, the US Department of State continues to insist on linking these matters to unrelated political topics. This work will continue.

Key points:

• Russia has repeatedly stressed its unwavering commitment to primarily political and diplomatic solutions to the crisis around Ukraine. The US Administration is currently engaged in active and result-oriented mediation. <...> We hope that America will be able to keep to the agreements reached in Anchorage.

• The Russian army fully holds the strategic initiative, and the West understands that. Recently, President of Russia Vladimir Putin spoke at a meeting of the Defence Ministry Board and answered questions during the Direct Line. Once again, he clearly confirmed that all the goals of the special military operation will be achieved – preferably through talks but, if necessary, using military means.

• Vladimir Zelensky’s presidential powers expired in May 2024. The election in Ukraine must be held according to law. We have noted that the United States holds a similar view.

• Ukrainian people, including the vast majority of their compatriots now residing in Russia, must finally be given the opportunity to determine their own future. Crucially, the organisation of such a vote must not be used as a pretext for a temporary ceasefire to facilitate the rearmament of the Ukrainian forces.

• The priority must be establishing legally binding guarantees that address the root causes of this conflict. The foundational principles upon which Ukrainian statehood was recognised by Russia and the international community must be restored.

❗️ This entails enshrining Ukraine’s neutral, non-aligned, and nuclear-free status; achieving its demilitarisation and denazification; and halting the NATO countries’ military development of Ukrainian territory.

The rights and freedoms of native Russians and Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine must be guaranteed, and the persecution of canonical Orthodoxy must cease.

Furthermore, Kiev and its Western sponsors must recognise the new territorial realities following the accession of Crimea, Sevastopol, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions to the Russian Federation.