Kremlin spokesman says talks ongoing as US President Donald Trump pushes for an end to the conflict.
Russia says the United States-brokered talks to end the war with Ukraine are “serious”, but its officials caution that an agreement is a long way off and Moscow would offer no major concessions to Kyiv.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in televised comments on Wednesday that the negotiations were ongoing and “the process is serious.”
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US President Donald Trump has put forward a 28-point plan – the details of which were leaked last week – and is sending his top negotiator Steve Witkoff to Moscow in the coming days as his administration pushes to end the nearly four-year war.
But Ukraine and its European allies had raised concerns that the US proposal endorsed several Russian demands, including that Ukraine cede additional territory, curb the size of its military and be barred from joining NATO.
The plan has since been modified with the emerging proposal reportedly accommodating some of those concerns.
Trump also later said progress was being made and Moscow was making concessions even though the war, which has seen Russian forces advancing in recent weeks, was going to move only “in one direction”.
While welcoming the US efforts, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters on Wednesday that “there can be no question of any concessions or any surrender of our approaches to those key points.”
Jim Townsend, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told Al Jazeera that Russia likely perceives Trump as impatient and unfocused and will deploy delay tactics to avoid concessions.
“This could just be a real mess. The Russians don’t feel any pressure. They think they’re going to win if they hold out long enough,” said Townsend, adding that all of the pressure so far has been on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that he was ready to advance the US-backed framework for ending the war and to discuss disputed points with Trump in talks that the Ukrainian leader said should include European allies.
Speaking at the White House the same day, the US president said resolving the Ukraine war was “not easy” but added, “We’re getting close to a deal.”
“I thought that would be an easier [deal], but I think we’re making progress,” he said.
Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said on Wednesday that there had been “zero indication” that Russia was prepared for a ceasefire in Ukraine, however.
Kallas said additional sanctions against Moscow were necessary along with increased support for Kyiv and insisted that any peace agreement must include concrete concessions from Russia.
“The focus of any agreement must be on what Russia should do,” she said, adding Europe must ensure Moscow “will never attack again”.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also said that while Europe wants the war to end as quickly as possible, “an agreement negotiated by great powers without the approval of the Ukrainians and without the approval of the Europeans won’t be a basis for a real, sustainable peace.”
“Europe is not a plaything but a sovereign actor for its own interests and values,” Merz told lawmakers in Berlin.
Drone attacks continue
Meanwhile, the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia came under a large Russian drone attack overnight.
The head of the regional military administration, Ivan Fedorov, said at least 19 people were wounded and more than 50 residential buildings were damaged, including a university dormitory filled with people.
Russian air defences, meanwhile, downed 33 Ukrainian drones overnight over various Russian regions and the Black Sea, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence.
Ukrainian forces struck a manufacturing plant in Cheboksary in western Russia that produces equipment and components for cruise and ballistic missiles, Ukraine’s General Staff also said.
