Kremlin says it ‘does not understand’ what Zelensky means by second peace summit on Ukraine

Moscow denounces that the US is “against any dialogue” and refuses to comment on a possible change of position if Trump returns to the White House

16 Jul. () –

Russian authorities said on Tuesday that they “do not understand” what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meant when he proposed the presence of “Russian representatives” at a second peace summit, given that Moscow was not included in the first one.

“The first peace summit was not a peace summit at all,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Zvezda TV. “Therefore, first of all, we need to understand what he (Zelensky) means,” he said, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

The Russian president on Monday discussed the possibility of Russia being represented at the second peace summit, after the one held in June in Switzerland, and expressed his confidence that the three points discussed at the first meeting would be agreed upon for its implementation.

Peskov has also denounced that Washington is “against any dialogue” and said that the United States “insists on continuing the war to the last Ukrainian, without sparing financial resources or military equipment for this purpose.”

Peskov has refused to comment on the possibility of a change in US policy if former President Donald Trump wins the November election over current President Joe Biden, and has asked to “wait for the results” of the vote.

“There is a lot of talk and speculation about who is ready for what and who holds what position,” he argued, as reported by Interfax. “At the moment, (Trump) is a candidate for the presidency. Let’s wait for the election results. American voters will decide his future,” he said.

He also stressed that it was too early to assess Trump’s decision to choose James David Vance as his running mate for the presidential election, which was revealed on Monday at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

“The Kremlin is not familiar with him, but we are aware of some of the statements that have been published in the media,” he said. “It is one thing for a person to be a candidate, and another thing for him to become a leader. This often makes a big difference,” the Kremlin spokesman added.