Russia will not join Ukraine-U.S. talks but expects future trilateral talks

“No, Russia will not take part in these contacts. This will be a bilateral dialogue between Ukrainians and Americans,” he said.

At the same time, Peskov added that the pause in the trilateral negotiation format is temporary.

“We hope it is temporary. I mean the continuation of the trilateral format. We hope that in the near future we will be able to resume these talks,” he said.

According to him, there is currently no clarity on the venue for the trilateral negotiations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on March 19 that Ukraine’s political negotiating team is already heading to the United States, where a meeting is scheduled for March 21.

Peskov also said that trilateral talks between the aggressor state, Ukraine and the United States are currently on hold.

A new round of talks in the Ukraine–Russia–U.S. format had been scheduled for March 5–9 in Abu Dhabi, but on Feb. 28 a joint U.S.-Israeli operation against the Iranian regime began.

On March 10, Zelenskyy said the next round of trilateral talks was to take place in Turkey. However, the United States proposed postponing the meeting by a week due to the war in the Middle East. Zelenskyy later said the U.S. proposed holding the meeting in America, but Russia refused.

On March 18, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said negotiating teams remain in daily contact, but meetings needed for progress have been postponed several times.