MOSCOW, July 24 (Reuters) – Russia believes U.S. President Donald Trump is sincere in his efforts to end the Ukraine war and will wait for Washington to put forward new proposals, even though the U.S. is continuing to provide weapons to Kyiv, the Kremlin said on Friday.
In the meantime, Russia will keep fighting to achieve its objectives by military means, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“Yes, (fighting) is not the preferred path, but given the absence of prospects for peace, we will see it through to the end, to total victory. Yet, we will wait for new (U.S.) proposals,” Peskov told a state TV reporter who asked if Moscow was willing to wait even longer for the Americans to come up with new ideas when previous efforts had failed.
His comments underscored the Kremlin’s desire to keep up diplomacy with Trump and place the blame on Ukraine’s European allies for prolonging the war, now half-way through its fifth year.
“The Americans — President Trump, his negotiators — are sincere in their desire to formulate options acceptable to everyone. The option they proposed was accepted by us but rejected by the Ukrainians,” Peskov said.
“The Americans could not persuade the Ukrainians… who were being incited by the Europeans.”
The last three-way peace talks between Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. took place in February, shortly before the United States and Israel went to war with Iran. The Kremlin has repeatedly said it hopes U.S. mediation will resume once the Middle East crisis has eased.
The top U.S. and Russian diplomats met briefly in Asia this week. Russia has been saying for weeks that it is ready to host Trump’s envoys for talks in Moscow, but no date has been announced.
Peskov said the position of the United States was ambiguous because it was “continuing to pump Ukraine full of weaponry” while talking about wanting to end the war.
“However, we must leverage this duality in the Trump administration’s position wherever it aligns with our interests. And their desire to facilitate a peaceful settlement is entirely in line with our interests,” he said.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Alison Williams)
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