Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Russia maintains working-level contacts with the United States and hopes Washington’s efforts to broker peace in Ukraine will succeed, but he also noted that Moscow will closely monitor the outcome of the NATO summit in Ankara.After US President Donald Trump said on Monday that reaching a solution to the more than four-year-old war in Ukraine was “closer than people think,” Peskov said Russia remained in contact with Washington.
According to Reuters, the Kremlin said: “We are in contact with the American administration, and we hope that their efforts to achieve peace will succeed.” He added that Moscow believed that a return to diplomacy was still possible, but placed the responsibility on Kiev’s leadership: “A return to the peaceful path is possible when Kiev shows good faith.”The Kremlin spokesman’s comments came as NATO leaders met in Ankara on Tuesday, where they are expected to unveil tens of billions of dollars in arms deals aimed at showing European allies are responding to long-standing US calls to increase defense spending, Reuters reported. The leaders are also scheduled to join Trump at the summit.Commenting on the NATO meeting, the Kremlin said that it would closely monitor developments, “and we will follow developments closely.”
Peskov also criticized the speech before the summit, saying Moscow took note of comments made by NATO members before the meeting.He added, “Unfortunately, some hostile statements were made about Russia before the summit.” These comments come as the war in Ukraine continues and fighting is on multiple fronts. Russia also claimed to have made further gains on the battlefield, “Russia achieved a strategic breakthrough by seizing Kostyantinivka, and continues to create buffer zones.”Trump’s latest comments suggesting the end of the conflict is closer than widely believed came after he spoke over the weekend with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. But he did not provide details to support his assertion that a solution was near. Hours later, Russia fired missiles and drones at Kiev and the surrounding area, killing at least 28 people. Later, Peskov said that Washington’s position on ending the conflict had not changed, while Zelensky told the Financial Times that he believed Trump now viewed the war differently after recent Ukrainian successes.