Asked about possible territorial concessions that could be agreed under Trump's presidency, which begins in just days, a long-time Putin ally suggested by the end of 2025 Ukraine might be no longer be a sovereign state.

By Iulian Ernst in Bucharest Influential Russian presidential advisor Nikolai Patrushev voiced unprecedentedly aggressive rhetoric against Moldova, saying the country may “cease to exist” in an an interview given to Komsomolskaia Pravda and broadly circulated in the Russian media.

Patrushev claims Ukraine will cease to exist by 2025, arguing that negotiations about its future should occur solely between Russia and the United States.

Moldovan officials have condemned recent remarks by Nikolai Patrushev, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who claimed that Moldova “will either become part of another state or cease to exist” due to its “anti-Russian policy,

Nikolai Patrushev, advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, believes that by next year, Ukraine “will completely cease to exist”. He also said that negotiations on Ukraine should be a matter for Russia and the United States alone.

An aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Nikolai Patrushev, claimed that Ukraine will cease to exist. In his opinion, this will happen in 2025, according to the Russian outlet Komsomolskaya Pravda.