Kremlin hails Trump’s national security strategy as aligned with Russia’s vision | Russia

The Kremlin has praised Donald Trump’s latest national security strategy, calling it an encouraging policy shift largely in line with Russian thinking.

The remarks follow Friday’s release of a White House document that criticizes the EU and says Europe is at risk of “civilizational erasure,” while making clear that the United States wants to establish better relations with Russia.

“The adjustments we are seeing in many ways correspond to our vision,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday. He welcomed signals that the Trump administration was “in favor of dialogue and building good relations.” He warned, however, that America’s so-called “deep state” could attempt to sabotage Trump’s vision.

The move comes as the White House’s efforts to push through a Ukraine peace deal enter a key phase. U.S. officials say they are in the final stages of reaching an agreement, but there is no indication that Ukraine or Russia are willing to sign the framework agreement developed by Trump’s negotiating team.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Downing Street on Monday for a four-way meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Zelensky previously appealed for support from European allies when the White House was trying to push Ukraine to agree to cede territory. A key question for kyiv is what security guarantees it would receive if it agreed to relinquish control of certain territories.

Zelensky said he had an “important phone call” with U.S. officials Saturday evening after completing three days of talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida. The meetings followed a visit to Moscow by Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner earlier in the week. A source told Axios that the call lasted two hours and was “difficult.”

“Ukraine is determined to continue working in good faith with the American side to truly achieve peace,” Zelensky wrote on social media. He said the two sides discussed “key points that could ensure an end to bloodshed and eliminate the threat of another large-scale Russian invasion.”

It is not clear that either the United States or Europe are prepared to offer the kind of security guarantees that would truly deter Russia from invading again. Vladimir Putin is also unlikely to agree to a deal involving Western troops stationed in Ukraine.

U.S. officials have repeatedly claimed to be close to a lasting deal since Trump began his second term, but those claims have been exposed as wishful thinking.

Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, told a defense forum Saturday that the administration’s efforts to end the war were in “the last 10 yards.” He said there were two outstanding issues remaining: the territory and the fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Kellogg is considered one of the U.S. officials most supportive of kyiv’s position, but he is expected to leave office in January and was present at the negotiations in Florida. Many others in Trump’s orbit, including Witkoff, have been much more open to adopting Russian positions. Trump’s son Donald Jr told a forum in Doha on Sunday that Zelensky was deliberately continuing the conflict for fear of losing power if it ended. He said the United States would no longer be “the idiot with the checkbook.”

Analysts in kyiv say the situation is not yet so serious that Ukraine would be forced to sign any agreement simply to prevent the war from continuing, but they say a difficult and potentially dark winter lies ahead as Russia continues to target energy infrastructure, disrupting electricity and heat supplies to millions of Ukrainians.

Exhaustion sets in as Ukraine enters the fourth winter of full-scale war, and Zelensky is weakened by a corruption scandal that has affected many associates and led to the resignation of his powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak.

One person was killed in a drone attack in the northern Chernihiv region on Saturday evening, according to local authorities, and a combined drone and missile attack targeted energy infrastructure in the central city of Kremenchuk. Much of the city was without power and water on Sunday. This is the second consecutive night of attacks targeting energy, after more than 600 drones and 50 missiles were used Friday evening.