Kremlin says a deal to end the war with Ukraine can’t be achieved quickly

KYIV Ukraine AP Clinching a deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war is far too complex to be done fast a senior Kremlin official noted Wednesday as the U S labors to bring momentum to peace efforts and expresses frustration over the slow progress Meanwhile a nighttime Russian drone attack on Ukraine s second-largest city of Kharkiv wounded at least civilians executives revealed The United Nations revealed that the number of Ukrainian civilian casualties in the more than three-year war has surged in modern weeks amid Washington s attempts to broker a peace agreement Putin wants answers before committing to a ceasefire Russian President Vladimir Putin backs calls for a ceasefire before peace negotiations but before it s done it s necessary to answer a limited questions and sort out a sparse nuances Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced Putin is also ready for direct talks with Ukraine without preconditions to seek a peace deal he added We realize that Washington wants to achieve quick progress but we hope for understanding that the Ukrainian emergency settlement is far too complex to be done fast Peskov declared on his daily conference call with reporters There are a large number of details and an array of small nuances that need to be solved before a settlement U S President Donald Trump has previously expressed frustration over the slow pace of progress in negotiations aimed at stopping the war which he revealed he could end in the first hours of his new administration in January Western European leaders have accused Putin of stalling while his forces seek to grab more Ukrainian land Russia has captured nearly a fifth of Ukraine s territory since Moscow s forces launched a full-scale invasion on Feb Trump has chided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for moves that he declared were prolonging the killing field and the U S leader has rebuked Putin for complicating negotiations with very bad timing in launching deadly strikes that battered the Ukrainian capital Kyiv Trump has long dismissed the war as a waste of American taxpayer money and lives lost in the conflict Senior U S bureaucrats have warned that the administration could abandon the peace efforts if it sees no answer That could spell an end to crucial military help for Ukraine and heavier economic sanctions on Russia US wants both sides to move faster The U S State Department on Tuesday tried again to push both sides to move more rapidly We are now at a time where concrete proposals need to be delivered by the two parties on how to end this conflict department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce quoted U S Secretary of State Marco Rubio as telling her How we proceed from here is a decision that belongs now to the president she advised reporters relating a conversation that she had with Rubio If there is no progress we will step back as mediators in this process Russia has effectively rejected a U S proposal for an immediate and full -day ceasefire making it conditional on a halt to Ukraine s mobilization effort and Western arms supplies to Kyiv Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed Wednesday that Ukraine had accepted an unconditional truce only because it was being pushed back on the battlefield where the bigger Russian forces have the upper hand In the context of the developments on the ground along the front line where the Kyiv regime is increasingly in retreat they have made an about-turn and started demanding an immediate ceasefire without any preconditions Lavrov stated at a briefing in Rio de Janeiro where he was attending a ministerial meeting of the BRICS grouping He also suggested that Ukraine s ceasefire promises weren t credible Both sides have accused each other of urgent previous truces Independent verification of the battlefield proposes wasn t realizable UN says Ukrainian civilian casualties are on the rise Meanwhile Ukrainian civilians have been killed or wounded in attacks every day this year according to a U N analysis presented Tuesday in New York The U N Human Rights Office stated in the record that in the first three months of this year it had verified civilian casualties in Ukraine That was almost more than during the same period last year Also between April - civilian casualties in Ukraine were up from the same weeks in it commented The Ukrainian air force stated that Russia fired Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine between Tuesday and Wednesday predominantly at the cities of Dnipro and Kharkiv Also Wednesday the Ukrainian Protection Organization claimed its drones struck the Murom Instrument Engineering Plant in Russia s Vladimir region overnight causing five explosions and a fire The plant located east of Moscow produces ammunition ignition devices as well as components and products for the Russian Navy and military aviation a source at the agency notified Associated Press The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the attack The claim could not be independently verified