Russia says ‘no deadlines’ to end Ukraine war

MOSCOW: Moscow is in no hurry to reach a deal to end the war in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested in comments to state media on Thursday.

Negotiators from both countries were in Geneva on Thursday for separate talks with US officials, part of a fraught negotiation process being pushed by President Donald Trump in a bid to end the fighting.

Several rounds of discussions have failed to clinch a deal, with Moscow insisting on hardline territorial and political demands that Kyiv has ruled out as tantamount to capitulation.

Top officials in Russia on Thursday again pushed back on the idea a deal was close.

“Have you heard anything from us about deadlines? We have no deadlines, we have tasks. We are getting them done,” state news agencies quoted Lavrov as saying.

READ MORE: Fresh Russian barrage wounds 23 in multiple Ukrainian cities

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said it was too early to make “forecasts” or say at what stage the peace process was at.

“It would be a big mistake to try right now to define some kind of stage or make some kind of forecasts. I don’t want to make those mistakes,” he told state media.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly said a meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin is needed to agree on the key sticking points, like the fate of territory in eastern Ukraine that Russia is fighting to seize control of.

Peskov repeated on Thursday that Russia will not agree to a summit until the very end of talks, and only to sign off on a deal thrashed out between the negotiating teams.