Moscow is hoping to achieve “some progress” at talks in Saudi Arabia on Monday, a Russian negotiator told state media on Saturday, ahead of US officials holding separate talks with Ukraine and Russia on a possible ceasefire.
Moscow has rejected a joint US-Ukraine proposal of a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire, instead suggesting just to halt aerial strikes on energy infrastructure.
The US will hold parallel talks with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations on Monday in a bid to secure a breakthrough.
“We hope to achieve at least some progress,” senator Grigory Karasin told the Zvezda TV channel, owned by Russia’s defence ministry.
He said he and fellow negotiator, FSB advisor Sergey Beseda had a “combative and constructive” mood ahead of the talks.
Russia’s choice of negotiators has raised questions, with the two figures outside of traditional diplomatic decision-making institutions like the Kremlin or the foreign and defence ministries.
Karasin is a career diplomat who now sits in Russia’s upper house of parliament, while Beseda is a long-time agent at Russia’s FSB security service.
The FSB in 2014 admitted that Beseda was in Kyiv during a bloody crackdown in the Ukrainian capital in the midst of the country’s pro-EU revolution.
“We are going with the mood to fight for the solution of at least one issue,” Karasin told Zvezda.
He said they were leaving for Saudi Arabia on Sunday and would return Tuesday.