Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that there was no reason to be enthusiastic about U.S. President Donald Trump's pressure on Europe and Ukraine, because peace talks have a long way to go, local media reported.
The U.S. has brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine on different drafts of a plan for ending the war in Ukraine, but no deal has yet been reached despite Trump's repeated promises to clinch one.
"There is still a long way to go," Lavrov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
He added that Trump had put Ukraine and Europe in their places but that such a move was no reason to embrace an "enthusiastic perception" of the situation.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said that any deal would have to exclude NATO membership for Ukraine and rule out the deployment of foreign troops in Ukraine, Izvestia reported.
At stake is how to end the deadliest war in Europe since World War II, the future of Ukraine, the extent to which European powers are sidelined and whether or not a peace deal brokered by the United States will endure.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, triggering the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War.
