White House says Russian and US interests in Ukraine settlement coincide

The US interests in the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine coincide with the interests of the Russian side. This was stated by Mike Waltz, assistant to the American president for national security, on the air of Fox News TV channel on February 20.

"I think our interests coincide in stopping <conflict>. Of course, [Russia] still has differences with the Ukrainians, so we need to bring the two sides together," Waltz said, his words quoted by TASS.

According to the politician, the phone conversation between US leader Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is a "historic first step" toward resolving the conflict.

Sense of contact: Putin and Trump agree on diplomatic solution to Ukraine crisis

In an hour and a half, they also discussed prisoner exchanges, the situation in the Middle East and the Iran nuclear deal

Thetalks between the delegations of Russia and the United States took place in one of the palaces of the royal family in Riyadh on February 18. Following the meeting, the US State Department said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had agreed to appoint high-level negotiating teams to start work on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.