The Kremlin talks about “cautious optimism” after the Putin and Wikkov meeting

Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed today, Friday, that Russian President Vladimir Putin received the American envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkeov, late Thursday evening. Peskov said in press statements that the American envoy transferred to Putin “additional information” for the Russian side, while the Russian President sent “additional signals” to his American counterpart Donald Trump. This comes in light of the growing American efforts to reach a truce agreement between Moscow and Kiev.

Peskov added that there is “what requires a feeling of cautious optimism”, based at the same time that there is still a “lot of work”, and the spokesman denied setting an appointment to make a call between Putin and Trump, linking such a call to communicate the information he obtained and is in Moscow to the US President. However, he acknowledged that there is “awareness from both sides of the necessity of making such a call”, which will be the second of its kind after Trump returned to the White House last January, when the two presidents made the first call in mid -February.

Putin confirmed in statements before the Witkeov meeting, yesterday, Thursday, his country’s approval of the proposals to stop the fighting work in Ukraine, provided that it leads to a sustainable peace and remove the radical reasons for the conflict, without expressly confirming the acceptance or rejection of the American proposal for the truce for a period of 30 days, which was announced at the conclusion of the American -Ukrainian talks in Saudi Arabia last Tuesday. Putin said: “We agree with the proposals to stop the fighting, but we start that this must come in a way that leads to a permanent peace and remove the initial causes of this crisis.” He stressed the need to take into account the proposal of the truce to the situation on the ground that is not in the interest of Ukraine, citing the situation in the Cursk Province, and added: “The situation there is under our full control, and the group that penetrated into our land has become isolated isolated Full and under full fiery control. “

For his part, Trump described Putin’s statement on Thursday as “very promising”, but he was not “complete.” Trump added that Witkeov is holding serious discussions with Russia on ending the war in Ukraine, and said: “We hope that they will do the right thing,” while Ukrainian President Folodimir Zellinski said on Thursday that Putin’s statements about the American proposal involve “manipulation”, accusing him of “procrastination” with the aim of continuing the conflict. “We all have heard the very expected words of Putin to a lot of manipulation,” Zellinski said, calling for an increase in pressure on Moscow.