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Kiev hopes for ending hostilities this year — deputy PM

According to Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Economics Minister Yulia Sviridenko, the Ukrainian authorities believe that a dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin is possible

MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/. Kiev hopes for the cessation of hostilities this year, Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Economics Minister Yulia Sviridenko said.

"We hope that the war will end this year," she said in an interview with the Polish RMF FM radio station.

According to Sviridenko, the Ukrainian authorities believe that a dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin is possible. "On the one hand, this is possible but everything will depend on when it happens. Talks can be arranged when Ukraine is strong enough and to be strong we need to boost our defense production," she explained, adding that Kiev expects US President Donald Trump’s administration to play an active role in the negotiating process.

Trump said on January 7 that the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict could take more than 24 hours, a timeframe he had set during his election campaign. His envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said however that he would like to meet a 100-day deadline. On January 21, Trump did not rule out the possibility of a complete halt of US arms supplies to Kiev and declared his readiness to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at any convenient moment. At the same time, the US leader did not rule out that the US will tighten sanctions on Russia if it refused to engage in peace talks.

As Putin noted earlier, Moscow was open to a dialogue with the new US administration on the Ukrainian conflict, the most important thing being to eliminate the root causes of the crisis. He reiterated that Russia had taken note of statements by Trump himself and his team about the wish to restore contacts, as well as the need to do everything to prevent a third world war.