According to him, the recent meeting of US President Donald Trump with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky in Washington suggests that the American leader is determined to carry on with the peace process.

"After all, if there is no such mood, why meeting? A meeting without results is an equal disadvantage for both Trump and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin," Azarov told TASS.

"On the whole, both sides are in the mood. Based on such absolutely logical considerations, I should assume that some positive results may be achieved after all," he stated adding he hoped that the spirit of the Russian-US summit in Alaska last August would be revived.

On October 16, Putin and Trump held a phone call, their eighth since the beginning of the year. The conversation lasted for two and a half hours. Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov stated later that Moscow and Washington would immediately begin preparing a new meeting of the leaders, which could be hosted by the Hungarian capital of Budapest.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban already issued orders to form an organizing committee for the preparations of the Russia-US summit meeting.

The Alaska summit took place at a military base near the city of Anchorage in mid-August. The meeting between the leaders of Russia and the US lasted about three hours, including a one-on-one in the US president’s limo on the way to the summit’s venue and a closed-door event that also involved two delegation members on each side, those being presidential aides and the top diplomats.