"A short truce in Ukraine would allow Kiev to catch its breath, while Moscow wants a lasting peace," Yuri Ushakov, foreign policy adviser to President Vladimir Putin, said, quoted by Ria Novosti.
Putin's official response could come today, in a press conference. But Moscow does not seem to favor the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, accepted by Kiev.
And he sets the stakes: «Crimea and the Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Lugansk are regions of the Russian Federation, as is written in our Constitution, and this is a fact» .
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this, thus reiterating some of the conditions set by Putin to start a peace process .
Peskov declined to comment on Reuters reports that Russia has handed over to the US a list of demands to end the war , including recognition of Crimea and four occupied Ukrainian regions.
Among the conditions set by the Kremlin there would also be Kiev's non-adherence to NATO and an agreement not to deploy foreign troops in Ukraine until Crimea and the four regions mentioned above are recognized as belonging to Russia .
(Unioneonline/L)