MADRID, February 16. /TASS/. The conflict in Ukraine is low on the list of priorities for the United States, Spanish newspaper El Pais writes.

According to its report, France and Italy are advocating for the need to resume dialogue with Russia in order not to be left out of the Ukrainian settlement process, upon which the future architecture of European security will depend. Germany and Great Britain, meanwhile, state that now is not the time to negotiate with Russia. The paper noted that for Washington "this war takes a very secondary place" among its priorities - a point US officials underscored again at the Munich Security Conference. State Secretary Marco Rubio "only briefly mentioned Ukraine" in his speech, the paper added.

"It is becoming clearer by the day that we need to talk to Russia. The question is not just when, but how," a high-ranking EU source told the newspaper.

Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron stated in an interview with Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung that he had proposed to several European colleagues to resume dialogue with Russia. In his view, the current format of negotiations on Ukraine, in which American representatives discuss the terms of a settlement with Moscow without the Europeans, "is not optimal."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has previously noted that if Macron is prepared to talk, President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly emphasized that he is always open to dialogue.