MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Friday that Russia closely follows all of Donald Trump’s statements after the U.S. president said he was “very disappointed” with his latest conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine.
Trump, who had confidently stated last week that Putin was “looking to settle” the conflict, said after Thursday’s phone call that he did not think the Russian leader was looking to stop it.
Asked about the comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “Of course, we are paying very close attention to all of President Trump’s statements.”
He did not address Trump’s implied criticism of Putin.
Trump, who returned to the White House in January with a promise to swiftly end the “bloodbath” in Ukraine, said after Thursday’s call: “I didn’t make any progress with him at all.”
Peskov said Putin had told Trump that Russia would prefer to achieve its goals in Ukraine by political and diplomatic means, but in the meantime would continue what it calls its “special military operation”.
He said the Kremlin leader had told Trump that Russia expects to agree a date for a third round of peace talks with Ukraine, following earlier talks in May and June.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Lucy Papachristou and Mark TrevelyanEditing by Andrew Osborn)
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