The principles of future relations between the Russian Federation and Ukraine will be built after the tasks of the special military operation are completed, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov told TASS.
According to him, the topic of future relations between the two countries is “a very theoretical question now“.
“First, we still need to resolve the problem and we need to register the implementation of the tasks that the special military operation was faced with. For us, it is preferable to do this through political and diplomatic means, and the special military operation continues in conditions when these means have become impossible, when all proposals for dialogue have been rejected - both by Ukraine itself and by the West," Peskov emphasized.
According to him, "if we manage to move into the channel of a diplomatic settlement, then this will already be the preferred option for us."
“But first we need to resolve the situation, and then think about how to build relations," concluded the Kremlin representative.
On Wednesday, representatives of Moscow and Kiev held a third meeting in Istanbul, which lasted about an hour.
This time, the parties agreed to continue the indefinite medical exchange of seriously injured and sick people. Russia has expressed its readiness to transfer to Ukraine another three thousand bodies of soldiers from the Ukrainian armed forces, and has also proposed an exchange of prisoners of war - at least 1,200 from each side.