Moscow-Washington contact useful; U.S. can help Ukrainian peace process, says Medvedev

(Interfax – July 24, 2015)

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said that the United States can help the peace process in Ukraine, and that he welcomes contact between Moscow and Washington on the issue.

“I believe that several countries currently play an important role. The United States can also help promote this process, because the US is a major powerful state that plays a key role in NATO, has a controlling stake in the global economy and so on. Again, let’s face it, Ukraine’s leaders are actively consulting with Washington,” Medvedev said in an interview with RTV Slovenija ahead of his visit to Ljubljana.

He called for contact with the U.S. over the Ukrainian issue to continue. “In this regard, we believe that our contact with the US is useful,” the prime minister said.

He noted that, “the European Union can help as well, by the way, and it is helping.”

At the same time, Medvedev stressed that “we shouldn’t impose anything.” “The problem of Ukraine is that, at some point, some states decided that they could run things there and show how events can unfold. We all know how it ended,” he said.