On Monday, the Kremlin expressed a cautiously positive assessment of the talks held last weekend in Abu Dhabi between delegations from Russia, the United States, and Ukraine, while emphasizing Moscow’s insistence on its conditions for advancing a settlement.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that without an agreement on territorial concessions, no tangible progress can be made. Peskov said: “There is no room to talk about a friendly atmosphere, which is entirely unlikely at this stage… It is wrong to expect initial contacts to be fully fruitful, as extremely complex issues are on the agenda.”