Moscow, Russia – The Kremlin stressed on Wednesday that any meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents requires “good preparation”.
This reduces the chances of a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky anytime soon.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media in a brief call, “Any high-level or highest-level communication must be well prepared to be effective”.
He added that senior Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are “in contact”, but no date has yet been set for negotiations.
Peskov stressed that “the heads of the negotiating groups are in contact, and we cannot yet set precise dates” for the new round of negotiations.
In a related context, the Russian official praised the United States’ efforts to achieve peace in Ukraine.
He said this month’s Russian-American summit in Alaska was “useful and necessary”.
But Peskov told reporters that Moscow had received European proposals regarding security guarantees for Kiev passively.
He reiterated Russia’s long-standing position of not accepting the deployment of any NATO forces in Ukraine.
He stressed that Russia opposes the deployment of European forces in Ukraine.
He pointed out that Moscow’s desire to prevent any military presence of NATO countries in Ukraine was at the forefront. This was one of the reasons that led to the outbreak of the war.
“We view this kind of discussion negatively,” Peskov told reporters when asked about Moscow’s view on deploying a European peacekeeping force. This was part of any agreement to end the conflict.
The Kremlin spokesman also said that Putin “always adopts a very responsible position, so Russian forces target exclusively military targets”.
