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. (IANS)
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