MOSCOW, Feb 16 (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Monday that what it called the “main issues”, including sensitive questions of territory, would be discussed in peace talks on Ukraine due to be held in Geneva this week.
The talks – between Russia, Ukraine and the United States – are due to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday at a time when Kyiv is under mounting U.S. pressure to strike a deal and as Moscow demands it cede the entirety of the Donbas area.
The Kremlin confirmed that the Russian delegation would be led by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to President Vladimir Putin.
“This time, the idea is to discuss a broader range of issues, including, in fact, the main ones. The main issues concern both the territories and everything else related to the demands we have put forward,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
He said military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov would also take part in the talks and that Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev would take part in a separate working group on economic issues.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he is keen to broker an end to a conflict he has called a senseless “bloodbath” though Russia and Ukraine remain far apart on key issues including territory, who controls the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and the role of any Western troops in post-war Ukraine.
(Reporting by Reuters;Editing by Andrew Osborn)
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