Putin is happy about the US refusal to admit Ukraine to NATO

"We have heard from Washington at various levels that Ukraine's membership in NATO is ruled out. And, of course, this is something that pleases us and coincides with our position that Ukraine should not be a member of NATO and should not have prospects for integration with the North Atlantic Alliance," Peskov cynically stated.

He repeated the Russian narrative that Ukraine's accession to NATO would pose a threat to "Russia's national interests." He also added that Ukraine's aspiration to NATO was one of the root causes of the conflict.

At the same time, he refused to comment on media reports that the US is allegedly ready to recognize Russian control over Crimea as part of a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.

There are many such messages now, many discussions. Of course, the work of searching for ways to achieve a peaceful settlement cannot and should not take place in the public sphere. It must take place in a completely discrete mode, and therefore it is necessary to be very, very careful about such impersonal informational inputs.