Progress in Russia-Ukraine talks may develop already this week

Progress on the issue of Russia-Ukraine talks may take place over the next two weeks due to the upcoming elections to the US Congress, Alexei Chepa, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs believes.

"Negotiations are possible, of course, and we will see this more clearly next week or even this week," Alexey Chepa said, lenta.ru reports.

The beginning and the course of the negotiation process will depend on the United States and Great Britain, Chepa believes.

"These two countries have been putting pressure on Kyiv. It is their position that made the Minsk agreements fruitless. Kyiv is not ready for the talks, because it has not received instructions for that. America started talking about a possibility of the negotiation process. Let's see what they are going to put forward — they, not Ukraine," he explained.

Republicans will play the Ukrainian card in the internal struggle, and Democrats will have to respond in some way, the MP also said.

Earlier, The Washington Post, citing its sources, reported that the United States was trying to convince Ukraine to express readiness for negotiations with Russia. Italy's La Repubblica wrote that the United States and NATO admitted the start of negotiations on the crisis in Ukraine could be possible should Ukrainian forces retake Kherson. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly stated that Russia was open to negotiations with Ukraine, but they were impossible due to Kyiv's refusal.