Spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed the US administration’s desire to reach peace in Ukraine
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. © Steffen Kugler/Getty Images It is hard to overestimate the significance of the recent phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump, which mainly focused on the Ukraine conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. The two leaders had a historic phone conversation on Wednesday, which marked the first known time the US and Russian leaders have spoken since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. Following the talk, Trump signaled that he is “okay” with keeping Ukraine out of NATO and suggested that it is “unlikely” that Kiev could regain all of the territories it had lost to Russia over the past decade. Trump also noted that they had exchanged invitations to visit each other’s countries. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Peskov described the phone call as “a very important conversation.” “Against the backdrop of what has been happening for several years, there have been no contacts at the highest level between Moscow and Washington,” he said, noting that this landscape did not contribute to solving the Ukraine crisis.
Read more Unlike the administration of ex-US President Joe Biden, which believed that “everything must be done to ensure that the war continues,” the Trump team apparently “holds the view that everything must be done to stop the war and for peace to prevail,” Peskov said. “We are much more impressed by the position of the current administration, and we are open to dialogue,” the spokesman stressed. At the same time, Peskov declined to reveal which side had initiated the engagement, while clarifying that there has been no agreement on whether Trump will come to Moscow to attend the Victory parade to celebrate the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany on May 9. “Exchanging mutual invitations is one thing, but focusing on a separate bilateral meeting is a different process,” the spokesman noted. Regarding a potential territory swap with Ukraine, Peskov cautioned against “getting ahead of ourselves.” “There is political will… to conduct a dialogue to reach a settlement… We need to wait for… at least the first results of the joint work.” READ MORE: Russia has won a war against the West: What the Putin-Trump call really means At the same time, Peskov would not confirm or deny Trump’s remarks that Saudi Arabia would host the summit between the two leaders. He also did not provide any timeline for a potential Trump-Putin meeting, or when Russian and American work groups could get down to negotiations. “There is definitely a need for such a [Trump-Putin] meeting to be held promptly. The heads of state have a lot to talk about… It is also impossible to speculate on any deadlines at this point, because the work will only begin these days.”
