Moscow, Jan 30 (.) Russia, following a US plea to temporarily halt hostilities, has agreed to refrain from conducting any further strikes on Ukraine until February 1 at the request of President Donald Trump, as suitable conditions for trilateral negotiations are being created, announced Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“Yes, there was a personal appeal from President Trump asking President Putin to refrain from striking Kyiv for a week, until February 1, while favourable conditions for negotiations are being created,” he said, responding to a question about whether Moscow supported Washington’s initiative.
Peskov also emphasised that Russian President Vladmir Putin has neither invited his Ukrainian counterpart President Volodymyr Zelensky anywhere, nor offered to meet with him.
“Zelensky requested the meeting, and Zelensky, in fact, initiated the meeting. And in response, President Putin told him that yes, we are ready, but only in Moscow,” the Kremlin spokesman clarified.
Commenting on Kyiv’s statement about its unwillingness to compromise on Donbas and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant – conditions which Moscow likewise is unwilling to back down on, Peskov claimed that the dynamics on the front speak for themselves.
On Friday and Saturday, the first meeting for a trilateral working group for conducting talks regarding the prevailing security issues took place in Abu Dhabi, with representatives from Moscow, Kyiv, and Washington, all in attendance.
Behind closed doors, the parties discussed outstanding issues in the American peace plan. A new meeting is scheduled for February 1.
According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, it will be bilateral, but the US may join, though most likely in the capacity of an intermediary rather than backing anyone.
According to foreign media, the US initiative initially included transferring the entire Donbas to Moscow’s control, recognizing it and Crimea as Russian territories, freezing most of the contact line in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, cutting the number of Ukrainian Armed Forces by half and banning the deployment of foreign troops and long-range weapons in Ukraine.
The talks in the UAE were preceded by a meeting between Putin and a White House delegation led by US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
According to the Kremlin, Washington acknowledged that without resolving the territorial issue according to the formula agreed upon in Anchorage, there is no hope for a long-term settlement, with Moscow reiterating that the Ukrainian Armed Forces must withdraw completely from Donbas.
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