Washington - Saba:
In an interview with the political commentary website Out Kick, US President Donald Trump described his communications with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as "rational."
Commenting on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, Trump said, "We've had several very rational discussions (with Putin), and I simply want people to stop dying."
The US President noted that he knows President Putin very well and expressed his satisfaction that relations between the two sides had not deteriorated due to the 2016 accusations that Russia interfered in the US presidential election.
On March 18, President Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, held an important phone call that lasted approximately two and a half hours, focusing on ways to end the Ukrainian conflict.
According to the Kremlin, Trump proposed during the conversation that the conflicting parties mutually refrain from attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days. Putin supported this initiative and immediately ordered the Russian military to do so.
Volodymyr Zelensky later said that Ukraine would support the proposal to halt attacks on energy infrastructure. The very next day, the Ministry of Defense announced that crude oil storage tanks in the Kuban had been struck by drones.
Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov had previously reported that an expert meeting between Russia and the United States was scheduled to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 24.
The Russian side will be represented by Grigory Karasin, Chairman of the International Committee of the Federation Council, and Sergei Beseda, Advisor to the Director of the Federal Security Service. The talks are expected to focus on the Black Sea Initiative.
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