Vershinin told Russian journalists: “Three rounds of negotiations have been held, and we are ready to continue. As for higher-level meetings, they need to be prepared seriously. Without this, it might be premature to discuss them.” The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister stated: “I believe that specific questions about where and how such consultations should be held are premature now. It’s a completely different matter. The priority should be to remove these annoying factors, which should mainly be handled by the United States,” considering that “Russia was not the initiating party of the unfortunate situation that the relations between the two countries have reached.” He explained that Russia and the United States are discussing the resumption of air traffic and Russia’s access to diplomatic assets, but these discussions have not yet yielded any “concrete results.” In the same context, Vershinin confirmed that Russia is ready to consider any ideas related to reducing the arms race, noting that there are currently no negotiations with the United States on this file. Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that Russia is awaiting Ukraine’s response to the proposal to form working groups, which was announced in the last round of negotiations in Istanbul, Turkey. The third round of negotiations took place on July 23 in the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul and lasted about an hour. Before that, a source told Sputnik that the heads of the Russian and Ukrainian delegations held a private conversation.
