The Kremlin confirmed Wednesday that Russian officials have been in contact with members of the Trump administration but did not say whether the discussions focused on ending the war in Ukraine.
“There are indeed contacts between certain agencies, and they have intensified recently,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “I can’t share any further details.”
Peskov also dismissed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s recently expressed willingness to negotiate peace directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Readiness needs to be based on something... It can’t be based on a legal ban preventing Zelensky from holding such talks,” Peskov said, referring to the Ukrainian leader’s announcement in 2022 that he would not hold peace talks with Moscow while Putin was president.
“For now, it’s nothing more than empty words,” he added.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that members of his administration were already in talks with Russian authorities about ending the war in Ukraine.
“We will be speaking, and I think we’ll perhaps do something that’ll be significant,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We want to end that war.”
When asked whether he had personally spoken to Putin over the phone, Trump told reporters: “I don’t want to say that.”
Putin said last month that he was ready to meet with Trump to discuss the war in Ukraine, as well as other “areas of interest to both the U.S. and Russia.”
Reuters reported earlier this week that Russian officials are considering Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as potential venues for future talks between the two leaders.
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