London, March 30 (IANS) Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has played down any hopes of a breakthrough in talks with Ukraine in Turkey, the BBC reported.

On Tuesday, Russia announced its intention to reduce its military activities in Kyiv and Chernihiv, while Ukraine said it would consider becoming a “neutral” state.

“What is positive is that the Ukrainian side has at least started to formulate and put on paper specifically what they are proposing. So far, we haven’t managed to achieve that,” Peskov said. .

“For the rest, we can’t, to put it that way, at the moment there have been breakthroughs, anything very promising,” he said, in remarks reported by the Interfax news agency.

Peskov said Russia is careful to comment on the talks because “we believe the negotiations should be held in silence”, adding that Russia’s chief negotiator will speak later.

He said Crimea, the region annexed by Russia in 2014, was “part of Russia” and that the Russian constitution made it impossible to discuss the fate of any Russian region with anyone.

Crimea’s status is settled for Russia and Moscow will not discuss the issue with Ukraine or any other party, Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

“Crimea is part of the Russian Federation. According to our constitution, we cannot discuss the fate of Russian territories, the fate of Russian regions with anyone. That’s out of the question,” the official said, according to RT.

–IANS

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