MOSCOW, March 9. /TASS/. Moscow is interested in holding the next rounds of talks with Kiev as soon as Ukraine is ready, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.
"Russia remains interested in continuing talks. Russia’s position, which is perfectly clear, has been brought to the attention of Ukrainian negotiators. We are interested in holding the next rounds of talks as soon as possible, as soon as Ukrainian negotiators are ready," he pointed out.
The third round of Russian-Ukrainian talks was held in Belarus on March 7. According to both Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, the talks failed to produce the desired results. Both parties expressed willingness to continue negotiations and pointed to progress with regard to the issue of humanitarian corridors. However, the parties haven’t announced the date and venue of their next meeting. Russian delegation member Leonid Slutsky, the head of the State Duma (the lower house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee, said that the next round of talks would be held in Belarus in the near future.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation based on a request from the heads of the Donbass republics. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans to occupy Ukrainian territories and the goal was to demilitarize and denazify the country. Russia’s Defense Ministry stressed that the Russian Armed Forces were not delivering strikes against Ukrainian cities. The ministry emphasized that the Ukrainian military infrastructure was being destroyed by precision weapons and there was no threat to civilians.