Sputnik news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in statements to Russia’s Channel One as saying: “In order for the new meeting between Putin and Trump to be fruitful, work should be done at the expert level, which is currently underway, and this is a kind of shuttle diplomacy.”
In response to a question about whether the talks between European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Trump’s statements expressing dissatisfaction with Zelensky, could delay finding a solution to the Ukrainian crisis due to Kyiv’s position, Peskov stated: “I don’t think this means anything, it means that there is a very complex work going on behind closed doors.”
Peskov pointed out that “Moscow does not yet know what the American-Ukrainian talks in Florida have concluded with,” adding: “When the results of those negotiations become clear, we will know how to move forward and where to go.”
It is worth noting that Trump stated on October 16, after a phone call with Putin, that they had agreed to hold a meeting soon in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, but the summit was later postponed.
It is also worth mentioning that Trump and Putin held a meeting in Alaska last August, and Trump then stated that “great progress” had been made in reaching a settlement to end the war in Ukraine.
