The administration of US President Donald Trump is showing strong interest in understanding Russia’s position on the Ukraine conflict, according to President Vladimir Putin’s aide, Kirill Dmitriev. The senior official, who heads the Russian Direct Investment Fund, is currently visiting Washington.

Contact between the two nations, which was almost non-existent for three years under the previous administration, resumed after US President Donald Trump returned to office in January. Trump has taken a markedly different approach toward Russia by reopening high-level diplomatic channels and authorizing direct talks between senior officials.

“I think what’s very important and what’s very different with President Trump and his team is that there is a great desire to understand what the Russian position is, to really understand the logic, because only by understanding the logic you can either follow it or maybe modify it or suggest something,” Dmitriev said in an interview with US journalist Lara Logan.

He noted that there were no discussions with the previous administration of President Joe Biden “on anything,” and that the absence of dialogue created misperceptions and misunderstandings.

“When two of the greatest nuclear powers in the world don’t talk, it is a huge danger to the world,” Dmitriev said, adding that there is “a big fear for many of the forces in the UK and the liberal forces in Europe that Russia and the US would actually have a good dialogue.”

In an effort to settle the Ukraine conflict, several rounds of consultations have taken place since Trump’s return to office, including visits by senior diplomats and Putin’s in-person meeting with the US president in Alaska. Earlier this month, the two leaders agreed to hold a second meeting in the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

European leaders and the Ukrainian government have continued to push for expanded military support for Kiev while resisting direct diplomatic engagement between Russia and the US. Earlier this week, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky claimed credit for derailing plans for a second Putin-Trump summit.

The Kremlin maintains that Kiev’s Western supporters are only prolonging the conflict by increasing weapons supplies to Ukraine, which Russia says has not changed the situation on the battlefield.

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