MOSCOW (Reuters) -Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin told U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday that a second round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine was useful despite Kyiv’s attempt to disrupt them by staging attacks Putin considered terrorism, a Kremlin foreign policy aide said.
Yuri Ushakov also said that the two presidents discussed other international issues, particularly the Middle East conflict and how Russia could help deal with Iran and its nuclear programme.
Ushakov told reporters after Putin and Trump spoke by telephone for more than an hour that Ukrainian attacks on bridges and other civilian infrastructure were an attempt to torpedo the negotiations.
“It was stressed that Ukraine tried to disrupt these talks by carrying out, on the direct orders of the Kyiv regime, deliberate attacks on civilian targets, on peaceful civilians,” Ushakov told reporters.
“The Kyiv regime has in essence degenerated into a terrorist organisation. The Russian side did not give in to provocations … Let me stress that our president described in detail the content of the talks and that these talks on the whole were useful.”
Memorandums outlining peace plans were exchanged and will be analysed, Ushakov said, “and we hope that afterwards the two sides will be able to continue their talks.”
He said the issue of a possible meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had not been raised at this stage.
But talks with Ukraine were possible despite what Moscow denounced as terrorist acts as “on the whole they are vital to achieve some sort of settlement.”
Ushakov said Trump “listened intently” to Putin’s description of events in Ukraine. “I think it was very useful for Trump to hear our assessment of what has been happening.”
Both presidents, he said, described their exchanges as “positive and very productive. Both President Trump and our president confirmed their readiness to remain in contact.”
On Iran, Ushakov said the United States believed Russia could play an important role in helping with the difficulties over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
“Donald Trump believes that Russian assistance is possible and vital and he would be grateful if Russia could help in an appropriate fashion by working with the Iranian side,” he said.
The two presidents, he said, also discussed the Middle East and tensions between India and Pakistan.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov and Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Maxim Rodionov and Ron Popeski; Editing by Alex Richardson and Matthew Lewis)
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