Moscow, Feb 19 (EFE).- The Kremlin on Wednesday described the meeting between representatives of Russia and the United States in Riyadh as an “important step” for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine.
“A very, very important step has been taken towards creating such conditions for achieving a peaceful resolution,” presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Peskov highlighted “the political will” shown by both countries in the Saudi capital, where they agreed on Tuesday to create negotiating teams to seek a peaceful solution to the war, which broke out almost three years ago.
Regarding the negative Ukrainian reaction to the meeting, he itted that a lot depended on the position adopted by Kyiv.
“(Ukrainian Volodymyr) Zelenskyy is making rather contradictory statements so far. He will probably formulate his position sooner or later,” he said.
Peskov described the state of relations with the US before the Riyadh talks as “deplorable” and said that bilateral cooperation would first need “resuscitation” and then “restoration.”
“Today is the first step of a long and difficult journey but an important one. Naturally, it’s impossible to fix everything in one day or a week. There is a long way to go,” he said.
Peskov neither confirmed nor ruled out that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, could meet before the end of this month, but added that the foreign ministries of both countries still had work to do.
Russia and the United States agreed on Tuesday to mutually respect each other’s interests and normalize diplomatic relations during talks in Riyadh, but have not yet begun negotiating a settlement to the conflict in Ukraine, Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said on Tuesday.
“It was a very serious conversation on all the questions we wanted to touch upon,” he said at the end of talks with a US delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
This was the first meeting between a Russian foreign minister and a US secretary of state since the one held in January 2022, a month before the start of the war, between Sergey Lavrov and his counterpart, Antony Blinken. EFE
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