By Dmitry Antonov
MOSCOW, Jan 16 (Reuters) – The Kremlin on Friday hailed what it said looked like the desire of Italy, France and Germany to resume dialogue on Ukraine with Russia as a “significant shift” which matched its own view of how the situation should evolve.
British Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper has signalled London does not agree that the time is right to re-engage, however, telling Politico that she had seen no evidence that Moscow wants peace in Ukraine.
“As for Britain, yes, Britain continues to take a radical stance,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday, when asked about the apparent shift in some European attitudes towards the idea of talking to Moscow.
“Nonetheless… the statements by the three leaders (of Italy, France and Germany) represents significant progress from our perspective,” said Peskov, who said that such a shift, if it reflected those countries’ strategic vision, was in line with how Russia believed things should evolve.
Moscow had an ongoing dialogue with the United States about so far unsuccessful efforts to get a peace deal in Ukraine, he added, but no such dialogue currently existed with European governments.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said earlier this month that Europe should restart dialogue with Russia to try to win more influence in negotiations over Ukraine, saying the EU should appoint an envoy to deal directly with President Vladimir Putin.
French President Emmanuel Macron has also spoken of the possibility of re-engaging, talking in December of the necessity for a “fulsome dialogue” with Moscow within weeks if a robust and lasting peace for Ukraine was not reached in the meantime.
On Thursday, according to German media, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called Russia a European country, saying he hoped ties between the EU and Moscow could be rebalanced.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Andrew Osborn and Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Gleb BryanskiEditing by)
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