Russian Senator: US Rhetoric on Ukraine Conflict Settlement Has Shifted, Lacks Practical Action

MOSCOW, July 2. /TASS/. American shifts regarding the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict are so far limited only by changes in their rhetoric, and Washington does not support Kiev anymore to the extent that former American leader Joe Biden did, Russian Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev told TASS.

"Following the G7 meeting in Evian there was some different rhetoric on behalf of the American side. But as I can tell based on the information that I have, so far this is just rhetoric, meaning that there are no practical actions on the US side that would reproduce the worst practices of the previous President Biden, who openly supported aggressive Ukraine without any restrictions. We're not at that point yet, thank God. There was probably a certain rollback," the Russian senator said.

According to Kosachev, despite the fact that there are "obvious disappointments" regarding developments in relations with the United States, it is impossible to call the current situation "closed" or "shut down."

"I would rather not say that all possibilities for moving forward have been exhausted. We have repeatedly demonstrated our will to move forward," he continued.

Speaking about the role of the Anchorage Summit, Kosachev stressed that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described in detail everything that happened there.

"It obviously follows from this description that the initiative to move forward in the search for compromises in this case - before Anchorage, during Anchorage - came from the American side. I believe that it was a very important statement," the senator said.

He recalled that US President Donald Trump’s envoys paid a visit to Moscow before the summit, and after that, their information was "rechecked" in a conversation with the American president.

"It was clear indeed that yes, that's exactly what we're talking about. And since there was some room for agreements there [in Anchorage], and for some kind of mutual exchanges and compromises, the Russian side did its part of the way right away, stating: ‘Yes, we are ready for compromises that you expect from us. Now it's up to you to express readiness to agree to the same compromises’," Kosachev noted.

"And that didn't happen. Either the Americans couldn't do it, or they didn't want to do it, or they just couldn't get around to do it because the crisis in the Persian Gulf region had erupted. History will judge," he added.