Hard road ahead to restore Russia-US relations, but there is political will: Kremlin

Moscow: Russia sees restoring ties with the United States as a long, hard task, but believes there is political will on both sides to move forward, the Kremlin said on Monday.

Rapid moves by US President Donald Trump to pursue a rapprochement with Russian President Vladimir Putin have unnerved Ukraine and its European allies.

"We are at the initial stage of the path to restoring our bilateral relations. The road ahead is quite long and difficult, but at least the two presidents have expressed political will in this direction," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

He said it was important to determine whether Ukraine, which is due to hold high-level diplomatic talks with the U.S. in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, really wanted peace or not.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says he is willing to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible, and is seeking guarantees from the U.S. and Europe to underpin the future security of his country. (Reporting by Dmitry Antonov, writing by Mark Trevelyan Editing by Andrew Osborn)