Kremlin says restoring Russia-US relations will be hard, but there is political will
Russia sees restoring ties with the United States as a long, hard task but believes there is political will on both sides to move forward, the Kremlin said on Monday.
“We are at the initial stage of the path to restoring our bilateral relations. The road ahead is quite long and difficult, but at least the two presidents have expressed political will in this direction,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Peskov said it was important to determine whether Ukraine, which is due to hold high-level diplomatic talks with the U.S. in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, really wanted peace or not.
In parallel, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that no talks are planned this week between Russia and the U.S. This follows a CNN report on Sunday, which claimed that U.S. officials would meet with their Russian counterparts during the talks with Ukraine in Saudi Arabia this week.
Separately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says he is willing to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible, and is seeking guarantees from the U.S. and Europe to underpin the future security of his country.
In this regard, the high-stakes bilateral talks will center around Ukraine’s efforts to convince the U.S. to resume intelligence and military support. This comes after Trump stated on Sunday that the United States had “just about” ended its suspension of intelligence sharing with Ukraine and expressed optimism about achieving positive outcomes with Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia.
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump raised the prospect of imposing large-scale U.S. sanctions on Russia, days after pausing the military aid and intelligence support to Ukraine, calling on both countries to get on with negotiating a peace deal.
“Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large-scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED,” Trump said on his social media platform.
“To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late. Thank you!!!”
The U.S. government is studying ways it could ease sanctions on Russia’s energy sector if Moscow agrees to end the Ukraine war, according to Reuters, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
