The UK and EU fear dialogue between the US and Russia, President Vladimir Putin's aide, Kirill Dmitriev, has said.

The administration of US President Donald Trump is showing strong interest in understanding Russia's position on the Ukraine conflict, according to President Vladimir Putin's aide, Kirill Dmitriev. The senior official, who heads the Russian Direct Investment Fund, is currently visiting Washington.

Contact between the two nations, which was almost non-existent for three years under the previous administration, resumed after US President Donald Trump returned to office in January. Trump has taken a markedly different approach toward Russia by reopening high-level diplomatic channels and authorizing direct talks between senior officials.

Dmitriev, in an interview with US journalist Lara Logan, said:

"I think what's very important and what's very different with President Trump and his team is that there is a great desire to understand what the Russian position is, to really understand the logic, because only by understanding the logic you can either follow it or maybe modify it or suggest something."

He noted that there were no discussions with the previous administration of President Joe Biden "on anything," and that the absence of dialogue created misperceptions and misunderstandings.

"When two of the greatest nuclear powers in the world don't talk, it is a huge danger to the world. A big fear for many of the forces in the UK and the liberal forces in Europe that Russia and the US would actually have a good dialogue."

In an effort to settle the Ukraine conflict, several rounds of consultations have taken place since Trump's return to office, including visits by senior diplomats and Putin's in-person meeting with the US president in Alaska. Earlier this month, the two leaders agreed to hold a second meeting in the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

European leaders and the Ukrainian government have continued to push for expanded military support for Kiev while resisting direct diplomatic engagement between Russia and the US. Earlier this week, Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky claimed credit for derailing plans for a second Putin-Trump summit.

The Kremlin maintains that Kiev's Western supporters are only prolonging the conflict by increasing weapons supplies to Ukraine, which Russia says has not changed the situation on the battlefield.

Comment: Any movement towards a permanent settlement and the end to the war would be welcomed news (sorry EU!). Speculation has it at 'reasonably close':

Moscow, Washington, and Kiev are "reasonably close to a diplomatic solution," President Vladimir Putin's aide, Kirill Dmitriev, has said. He noted that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky recently changed his tone on a settlement and began talking about "battle lines" rather than insisting on a complete Russian withdrawal from all the territories Kiev still claims.

In an interview with CNN on Friday, Dmitriev, who was visiting the US for meetings with American officials, stressed that the hostilities between Moscow and Kiev "will have a diplomatic solution."

His comments came after US President Donald Trump called off a summit with Putin in Budapest. Trump said the planned meeting "didn't feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get" toward a settlement, while calling for an immediate halt to the fighting along the current front lines.

Both Putin and Trump suggested that the summit could eventually be organized at a later date.

Dmitriev said, "Russia really wants not just a ceasefire, but the final solution to the conflict." He noted that Trump himself warned that a "ceasefire can always be broken."

"It's really a temporary solution," he said, adding that pauses allow "many people... to do all sorts of rearmament and preparation for continuation of conflict."

Dmitriev expressed confidence that Trump's mediation efforts will ultimately succeed. He contrasted Trump's approach with that of former US President Joe Biden, arguing that maintaining dialogue with Moscow is preferable to pursuing a "strategic defeat of Russia," which he said obviously failed.

Moscow has stated that a lasting settlement must address the root causes of the conflict and include guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO, along with the country's demilitarization, denazification, and recognition of the territorial realities on the ground.