MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Friday it considered calls by some European states to resume dialogue with Russia as “positive”, after French and Italian leaders called for re-engagement with Moscow on Ukraine.

Dialogue between the EU and Russia has been virtually frozen since Moscow launched its full-scale offensive on Ukraine in 2022. The bloc has imposed huge sanctions and travel restrictions on Russia.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni both recently said they were in favour of re-engaging with Moscow.

“We have noted statements made in recent days by a number of European leaders,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

“If this truly reflects the strategic vision of the Europeans, then it is a positive evolution of their position,” he added.

“From Paris, from Rome and even from Berlin there is support for the idea that for there to be stability in Europe you need to talk to the Russians,” said Peskov.

“This absolutely corresponds to our position.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has not called for talks with Russia, but said this week that the EU should find a “balance” with Moscow for the future.

UK singled out

The Kremlin singled out Britain, which is not in the EU and which Moscow considers as one of its main adversaries, as having a “destructive” position.

“Britain keeps its radical stance,” Peskov said, accusing London of not wanting peace.

Ukraine and European leaders have repeatedly said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is the main obstacle to peace and has no genuine desire to halt his four-year offensive.

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Downing Street reiterated Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s position, saying he had “no plan” to hold talks with Putin.

Few European leaders have spoken to Putin since he launched the offensive in Feb 2022.

The United States has taken the lead role in talks to end the almost four-year war, running shuttle diplomacy between Russian and Ukrainian officials.

“I think the time has come for Europe to talk to Russia,” Italy’s Meloni said earlier this month.

She followed Macron, who said last month that it would be “useful” for Europe to re-engage with Putin.

‘Absurd’ situation

Armin Laschet, a prominent member of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s party, called on Friday for renewed dialogue with Russia, saying the current situation was “absurd”.

Laschet, a former candidate for chancellor for Merz’s conservative CDU party, said “if Europe wants to be sovereign, it must be able to represent its own positions”.

“That is precisely why (French) President (Emmanuel) Macron’s approach is correct,” said Laschet, who heads the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

Macron said last month Europe should find a “framework” for engaging with the Kremlin in the “coming weeks”.

Laschet pointed out that at the moment “European heads of government work out joint positions with (Ukrainian) President (Volodymyr) Zelensky which are then taken to Moscow by American negotiators”.

“Europe is incapacitating itself,” he said.