Donald Trump’s pledge to end Russia’s war in Ukraine is doomed to failure if the incoming president’s plan does not include broader talks aimed at assuaging Moscow’s security concerns, a Russian tycoon close to the Kremlin has warned. .

In particular, Konstantin Malofeyev, who is subject to Western sanctions, told the Financial Times that President Vladimir Putin is likely to reject a peace plan proposal from Trump’s newly appointed special envoy for the conflict, Keith Kellogg.

“Kellogg comes to Moscow with his plan, we take it, and then we tell him to go f@@@@, because we don’t like anything. That will be the whole negotiation,” Malofeyev said in an interview from a luxury resort in Dubai. “For the talks to be constructive, we need to talk not about the future of Ukraine, but about the future of Europe and the world.”

Malofeyev said Trump could end the conflict only if he reversed Washington’s decision to use advanced long-range weapons and removed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from office, then agreed to meet with Putin for “high-level discussion level on all matters of world order”.

He warned that “the world is on the brink of nuclear war” after Kiev fired long-range US- and UK-made missiles into Russian territory and Putin responded by launching an experimental ballistic missile in Ukraine.

Days before his nomination, Kellogg told Fox News that Washington should take Russia’s bluff over the recent ballistic missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro and threats of further escalation. “Putin used the nuclear missile threat for psychological reasons,” Kellogg said.

“He didn’t use the missile because it was militarily effective. . . but because he wanted to say to the West ‘look what I can do'”.

Instead of “backing down,” he added, the US and Western allies should “keep going, because Putin will not start a nuclear war in Europe.”

Malofeyev, however, argued that if the US did not agree to withdraw its support for Ukraine, Russia could launch a tactical nuclear weapon. “There will be a radiation zone that no one can penetrate,” he said. “And the war will end.”

He added that Moscow is making peace a condition of talks between Putin and Trump and other global flashpoints, including wars in the Middle East and Russia’s growing alliance with China, as well as US recognition that Ukraine it is part of the Kremlin’s core interests.

“We want a long-term peace – some kind of general agreement on the world order,” Malofeev said. “Trump wants to go down in history, he’s going to be 80 soon, he’s a grandfather. Not even Putin is 50 anymore. It will be the legacy they will both leave us.”

According to the Financial Times, Malofeyev’s views are even more advanced than Putin’s terms for a possible ceasefire, which would require Ukraine to cede four frontline areas to Russia and agree not to join never in NATO.

The devout Orthodox Christian tycoon holds no official position, but has often been one of the voices echoing the Kremlin’s views. In September, he married Maria Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for children’s rights who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for possible war crimes related to the abduction of children from Ukraine.

Malofeyev was added to Western sanctions lists for his role in Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. The US has transferred millions of dollars from his frozen assets to help rebuild Ukraine.

Despite inflation and supply chain hits from Western sanctions, Malofeev said the war had “healed” Russia’s economy by reviving its defense industry, where factories are working around the clock in three shifts while there has been a consumer boom.

“The old Soviet military machine is working again and [σε όλη τη Ρωσία] people live much better than before the war,” he said. “People who work in the defense industry, in agriculture, in the market, in the local markets and make up 90% of the population, the sanctions don’t affect them at all.”

Although Putin has asked the West to lift all its sanctions against Russia for a possible ceasefire, Malofeev argued that US-led pressure had helped the Kremlin rally support from allies such as China, Iran and North Korea.

“External threat is necessary to make us stronger. The more there are conflicts and confrontations, the stronger the regimes become, because it is easier to rally the population to fully support the leaders,” he added.