Washington’s overtures concern the Ukraine peace process that has effectively been on hold since February, according to Yuri Ushakov
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov. © Sputnik / Kristina Kormilitsyna
The US has made “interesting offers”
to Russia regarding the Ukraine peace process, although it has
effectively been paused in recent weeks, President Vladimir Putin’s aide
Yuri Ushakov has said.
Moscow and Kiev have for months been
engaged in US-mediated negotiations, having held two meetings in a
trilateral format in Abu Dhabi in January followed by talks in Geneva in
mid-February.
However, the ongoing US-Israeli aggression against
Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes on American bases across the
Middle East have disrupted the next round of negotiations in the United
Arab Emirates that had originally been slated for early March.
Speaking to Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin on Sunday, Ushakov stated that the US “voiced a number of fairly interesting, I would say, useful ideas and offers” vis-à-vis the Ukraine peace process. “But those are not being realized so far,” the Kremlin aide added.
Ushakov noted that at the end of the day, Russia lives by the motto “trust, but verify” when it comes to international relations.
Earlier this month, Moscow said the trilateral format aimed at
resolving the Ukraine conflict should continue, since all sides are
interested in putting an end to the hostilities.
In early March,
Russia and Ukraine exchanged 500 prisoners of war each, with US special
envoy Steve Witkoff saying the swap had been agreed during the last
round of talks in Abu Dhabi.
He added at the time that the exchange served as proof that “sustained diplomatic engagement is delivering tangible results.”
Meanwhile,
on Thursday, a delegation of Russian lawmakers met with a bipartisan
group of their US counterparts at the invitation of US Representative
Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida.
“As representatives of the world’s two greatest nuclear super powers, we owe our citizens open dialogue, ideas, and open lines of communication,” Luna said in a post on X after the talks at the Donald Trump Institute of Peace in Washington.
The head of the Russian delegation, Vyacheslav Nikonov, said the meeting went “better than expected,” adding that restoring contacts between the two nations’ legislatures was now “possible.”