Kremlin: Russia ready for talks with U.S. about the Donbas
Russia intends to step up the dialogue with the U.S. on the settlement of the situation in Donbas, as reported by the newspaper Izvestiya citing the by Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergey Ryabkov.
According to him, Russia expects that soon the U.S. will appoint someone in the State Department to care for this matter. First, a successor to Victoria Nuland – who was involved in the Ukraine issue under Barack Obama – needs to be appointed. Only then will there be possible a substantive discussion of the settling of the Ukraine issue with the United States.
In the meantime, according to the publication’s sources in the presidential administration, the role of the main negotiator from Russia will remain the president’s assistant Vladislav Surkov.
According to experts and politicians in the United States, “U.S. President Donald Trump is ready to make compromises in Ukraine in exchange for concessions from Russia on other issues.”
Ryabkov explained that “the bilateral dialogue on Ukraine will not be a substitute for the Normandy format; on the contrary, it will help to implement the Minsk agreements.”
Earlier it was reported that the Trump administration wants to participate in resolving the situation in Ukraine.