MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Sunday, the Washington Post reported that the White House wants to restart the Ukrainian peace process with the aim of improving relations with Moscow.
Citing US officials and outside experts, the newspaper explained that Washington is hoping that Ukraine could be the place where President Trump's "so far thwarted plan to improve US-Russian relations can be kick-started."
"Contacts between Russia and the US are being carried out at the level of the respective officials," Zakharova said at a weekly briefing.
WP indicated that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to appoint a special State Department envoy to coordinate the initiative and carry out negotiations with Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov, with a "robust interagency process" already underway "to chart the new strategy."
Ukraine has seen a civil war in its southeastern Donbass regions since April 2014, when Kiev sent troops, tanks and heavy artillery to attempt to quash protests which sprang up in dissatisfaction to the new authorities' following the February 2014 Maidan coup d'état. The subsequent war in Donbass has claimed the lives of over ten thousand people, displaced millions and led to a crisis in relations between Russia and the West.
