U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, right, Russian presidential foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, left, Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev, second right, and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, arrive for meetings in Moscow on Dec. 2, 2025. | Kristina Kormilitsyna, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

President Donald Trump has directed U.S. officials to help to facilitate a “lasting and durable peace" between Ukraine and Russia, with a "very, very strong" package being presented.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told ABC News during an exclusive interview in Moscow on Monday that he believes the warring parties are close to a deal.

The Trump administration, which remains keen to ram forward some kind of deal, has tried to sell Kyiv of its latest vision for peace which is an unclear compromise of sorts. It would require Ukraine’s military to withdraw from the areas of Donetsk it still controls and turn the area into a special economic zone.

Russian crude prices are at their lowest since the war in Ukraine began, as sanctions deepen the discounts the nation’s oil industry needs to offer and benchmark futures tumble.

The new head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service MI6 will warn the nation that the “front line is everywhere” in her first public speech on Monday, as the UK faces emerging threats.

But part is because Ukraine is keeping secret the methods it hopes will help it regain a winning edge elsewhere. Participants refuse to say how they circumvented the all-seeing eyes and kill-zones of the modern battlefield.