Kremlin welcomes new US approach after Trump criticism of Zelenskiy

By Dmitry Antonov

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin praised the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday for trying to understand the "root causes" of the Ukraine conflict and bring an end to it, in what it said was a marked contrast with the approach of Europe.

The comments are one of the Kremlin's clearest acknowledgements yet of the sea-change in U.S. policy on the war since Trump took office five weeks ago.

Reversing three years of U.S. efforts to punish and isolate Moscow under the administration of Joe Biden, Trump has moved quickly to repair ties with President Vladimir Putin and endorsed parts of the Kremlin narrative on the conflict.

Last week Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a "dictator" and suggested Kyiv had started the war, which began exactly three years ago when Putin announced a "special military operation" and sent his army into Ukraine.

Asked about Trump's comments blaming Zelenskiy and Biden, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Trump administration itself had said it was reframing its approach to Russia.

"This is what we welcome and support. This is the first thing. Secondly, we hope that Washington will fully analyse the root causes of the Ukrainian conflict - this is actually what we tried to get our opponents in Europe to pay attention to, and what they have always refused to do, just like the previous Washington administration," Peskov said.

Russia has long argued that it was forced to launch the war to protect Russian-speakers in Ukraine and defend itself by making sure that Ukraine could not join NATO. Ukraine and the West say these were pretexts for a colonial-style land grab.

"Without a deep analysis and understanding of the root causes of the conflict around Ukraine, it is essentially impossible to work properly on a (peace) settlement," Peskov said.

"And here we see Washington's attempts to really understand what caused this conflict, and we hope that this analysis will help efforts in the context of conflict resolution."

In contrast, Peskov said there was no basis at the moment for Russia to resume dialogue with European countries, which on Monday hit Moscow with yet another sanctions package including a ban on aluminium imports. He called the sanctions "entirely predictable".

REMOVING 'IRRITANTS'

Critics of Trump have accused him of selling out Ukraine by conceding key negotiating points even before the start of talks. Ukraine and its European allies are fearful of a hasty Putin-Trump deal that would sideline them and undermine their security.

Trump's officials say the U.S. approach simply recognises the realities of the situation and is aimed at halting the bloodshed.

Peskov said the next contacts with the U.S. side, expected later this week, would focus on addressing "irritants" in bilateral relations and "unblocking" the work of their embassies, which has been dogged by disputes over diplomatic properties and staffing levels.

He said the Russian foreign ministry would announce in due course where and when the next talks would take place.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Andrew Osborn)