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.

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.

Officials in Chisinau say the statement by Nikolai Patrushev, Vladimir Putin's aide, that Moldova will either become part of another state or cease

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,

Tensions between Moldova and Russia have been growing, particularly after Moldova’s push for closer ties with Europe. Recently, a statement by Nikolai Patrushev, a close aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin,

The head of Russia's Security Council and advisor to Vladimir Putin, Nikolai Patrushev, has threatened in an interview that Moldova's "anti-Russian policy" could lead to the country "ceasing to exist.