VIENNA, November 3. /TASS/. Washington is not currently aspiring to achieve peace in Ukraine, and instead is ratcheting up escalation by continuing to supply Kiev with arms, Russian Ambassador to Austria Dmitry Lyubinsky said in an interview with the Oberosterreichische Nachrichten newspaper.

"The United States is very deeply involved in this conflict. And it does not need any progress toward peace, at least, at this moment. It is staking its bets on ramping up escalation by increasing arms supplies while using Europe, which will bear the main economic burden," the diplomat said.

He noted that there is no dearth of peace initiatives; for example, China and African countries were making efforts on this track. "The issue is not in the absence of peace initiatives, but in the absence of political will. By his own decree, [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky himself prohibited any peace talks with Russia," the envoy emphasized.

He asserted that Ukraine is not being allowed to make an independent decision on peace negotiations. "Yet we have never ruled anything out. For our part, we are not burning any bridges," he added.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that lifting Ukraine’s official ban on talks with Russia may become the first step toward a dialogue. Last year, Zelensky enacted the decision by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) on the impossibility of holding talks with the Russian leader.