The Kremlin warned Thursday that there was "not much cause for optimism" that the West would satisfy Russia's demands in the showdown over Ukraine, but said that President Vladimir Putin would take his time to study the written responses that the United States and NATO submitted a day earlier before deciding how to proceed.
"All these papers are with the president," Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters. "There will of course be some time needed to analyze them -- we won't rush to any conclusions."
Peskov did not discuss the content of the responses, which the United States has requested be kept confidential. But he said that based on public remarks about them by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, there was little likelihood that the West would offer concessions on Russia's central demands.
"There is not much cause for optimism," Peskov said, replying to a question over whether Russia would be satisfied with the Western responses. "But I would continue to refrain from making any conceptual evaluations."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sounded a similarly negative note, saying in comments published on his ministry's website that the U.S. document contained "no positive reaction" to Russia's main demands.
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The Russian officials' comments came against the backdrop of Russia's troop buildup near Ukraine, and hours after a shooting at a Ukrainian missile factory overnight that served as a reminder of the fragile military situation on the ground. As Western fears grew over a possible Russian attack against Ukraine, Moscow published a list of demands last month that would involve NATO withdrawing troops from Eastern Europe and pledging never to allow Ukraine to join. Russia requested a response in writing, which the United States and NATO submitted Wednesday.
Lavrov said that while the U.S. response included initiatives that could serve as "the beginning of a serious conversation," there was no sign of progress on Russia's priority of rolling back the NATO presence in Eastern Europe. He said that consultations among Russian government officials would be followed by a briefing to Putin, who "will decide on our next steps."
Putin, who has been silent in public on the Ukraine crisis since December, visited a cemetery in St. Petersburg on Thursday to mark the 78th anniversary of the end of the Nazis' siege of Leningrad, in which Putin's brother died as a child. State television aired brief footage of Putin, in a black overcoat, placing flowers onto a wreath in the snow. Peskov said the president planned no other public events.
For now, officials on all sides say there is still a chance for diplomacy to resolve the crisis. President Joe Biden was expected to speak with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine on Thursday.
A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Alexei Zaitsev, said another meeting scheduled to take place in Berlin in two weeks could identify "solutions to problems that have been piling up for seven years." And he reiterated Russian officials' insistence that their country had no plans to attack Ukraine.
"We see it as unacceptable to even think about war between our peoples," Zaitsev said, according to the Interfax news agency.
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But analysts say it is very likely Putin's diplomats do not know what, exactly, their president is planning. Putin has threatened unspecified "military-technical" measures if the West does not accede to Russia's demands.
A national guard soldier in Ukraine opened fire early Thursday at an aerospace and rocket factory in the eastern part of the country, killing five people, authorities said.
Details of the shooting were scarce and there was no immediate sign that it was related to the military buildup in the region.
The shooting took place in Dnipro, one of the largest cities in the country, which lies more than 100 miles from the front line of the war in eastern Ukraine. Four of those killed were soldiers and the fifth was an employee of the factory, police said. Five other people were wounded.
The gunman fled the scene, leading to a sprawling manhunt that lasted for hours before a suspect was taken into custody, according to police. The man was identified as Artemiy Ryabchuk and authorities said he was born in 2001, but released few other details.
Information for this article was contributed by Anton Troianovski, Michael Schwirtz and Andrew E. Kramer of The New York Times.
A Danish Royal Air Force F-16 fighter jet stands on the tarmac Thursday at the Siauliai air base east of Vilnius, Lithuania. (AP/Lithuanian Ministry of National Defense)
A Ukrainian soldier patrols Thursday on the front lines in the Luhansk area of eastern Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin was reviewing a U.S.-NATO response to Russia’s demands on Ukraine, but the Kremlin warned that there was “not much cause for optimism.” More photos at arkansasonline.com/128luhansk/. (AP/Vadim Ghirda)Gallery: Ukraine servicemen on the front line
