Moscow: The heads of the negotiating groups of Russia and Ukraine continue to remain in contact but there are no exact dates for next round of talks yet, Russian President’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
“The heads of the negotiating groups [of Russia and Ukraine] are in contact, but we cannot yet name the exact dates [of a new round of negotiations in Istanbul],” Peskov was quoted as saying by Russia’s Tass news agency during a regular media briefing in Moscow.
The Presidential spokesperson stated that communication between negotiating groups of Russia and Ukraine must continue and they must be well prepared for these contacts to be productive.
When asked about the possibility of revising the level of the negotiating groups of Russia and Ukraine, he responded, “This work (communication between the negotiating groups of Moscow and Kyiv) is continuing, and we believe that it should continue. Because any other contacts at high or highest level, as we have repeatedly said, must be well prepared in order for these contacts to be productive.”
The Kremlin spokesperson also mentioned that Russia takes a negative view regarding the idea of the presence of European troops in Ukraine, Tass reported.
When asked about Russia’s attitude to proposals to send European troops to Ukraine as a guarantee of that nation’s security, he responded, “We have a negative attitude.”
He even called the advancement of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) military infrastructure in Ukraine among the root causes of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“There are no European military, there are military of specific countries, and most of these countries are NATO members. At the very beginning, it was the advancement of NATO military infrastructure and the infiltration of this military infrastructure into Ukraine that could probably be called among the root causes of the conflict situation that arose. Therefore, we have a negative attitude towards these discussions,” said Peskov.
Earlier, Russian leader’s aide Yury Ushakov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump during their talks over phone, spoke in favour of continuing direct negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv and discussed the possibility of raising their level.
Following the phone-call with Putin, Trump stated that he has started arrangements for a meeting between Russian President and Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky followed by a trilateral meeting.
“I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelensky,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat (trilateral meeting), which would be the two Presidents, plus myself. Again, this was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years,” he added.
Putin and Trump held talks at the Arctic Warrior Convention Centre in Alaska on August 15. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US President’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff also participated in the meeting.
(IANS)
