Kremlin says Ukraine peace talks remain complex, no quick resolution expected

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that work on trying to reach a settlement to end the war in Ukraine was extraordinarily complex and that it would be wrong to expect any imminent decisions.

It was commenting after Russia told Ukraine at peace talks in Turkey on Monday that it would only agree to end the fighting if Kyiv gives up big new chunks of territory and accepts limits on the size of its army, demands Ukraine has repeatedly rejected.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that agreements reached at the Istanbul talks to exchange prisoners and the bodies of dead soldiers would be honoured however, and that work on agreeing a possible settlement would continue.

He said Russia and the U.S. had not yet agreed on specific future contacts between President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump, but that Putin was ready for various high-level contacts if they were properly prepared.

It was unlikely, added Peskov when asked, that Putin, Trump and Zelenskiy would hold face-to-face talks together in the near future.