Russia said on Tuesday it was not optimistic after a first round of talks with the United States on the Ukraine crisis and would not allow its demands for security guarantees from the West to become mired in tortuous negotiations.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was positive that Monday's talks in Geneva had been held in an open, substantive and direct manner, but Russia was interested only in results.
"There are no clear deadlines here, no one is setting them - there is just the Russian position that we will not be satisfied with the endless dragging out of this process," he said.
Russia has pushed the West to the negotiating table by massing troops near Ukraine's border as it presses a set of far-reaching demands that would prevent Ukraine from ever joining NATO and roll back two decades of alliance expansion in Europe.
REUTERS