The Kremlin on Monday said that it supported the idea of a truce in Ukraine but had many “questions” about how it would work, pushing back at US and European suggestions that it was playing for time.
US President Donald Trump has voiced growing frustration at the lack of progress towards a ceasefire in the three-year-long conflict, despite his administration holding talks with both Ukrainian and Russian officials.
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The US leader in March said that he was “pissed off” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and on Sunday told reporters: “We’d like them to stop. I don’t like the bombing. The bombing goes on and on.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday told reporters that “Putin does support the idea that a ceasefire is needed, but before that a whole range of questions have to be answered.”
“These questions are hanging in the air, so far no one has given an answer to them,” he added, blaming the lack of progress on “the Kyiv regime’s uncontrollability”.
Putin rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional and full ceasefire in March, while the Kremlin has made a US-proposed truce in the Black Sea dependent on the West lifting certain sanctions.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday said that Trump was not “going to fall into the trap of endless negotiations” with Russia, while French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday urged Moscow to stop using “stalling tactics”.
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Moreover, Peskov denied firing on civilian infrastructure after a deadly strike on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih that killed 20 people, including nine children.
“No strikes are carried out on social facilities and social infrastructure,” a Kremlin spokesman told reporters during a briefing call when asked about Friday’s attack.
- Ukraine-US talks ‘this week’ -
Russia has kept up its strikes on Ukraine unabated since Trump took office, despite the US president’s promise to bring peace within “24 hours” once settled back into the White House.
A Russian missile strike on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s home city of Kryvyi Rig on Friday evening killed 20 people, nine of them children, according to local authorities.
The Kremlin on Monday denied firing on civilian infrastructure.
In a visit to Cairo, Macron urged Russia to accept the US push for a ceasefire.
“For almost a month now, Russia has not only refused to accept the ceasefire, but has also stepped up its bombardment of civilians, with tragic casualties again a few days ago in Ukraine,” he said
“It is urgent that Russia stops with the pretences and stalling tactics and accepts the unconditional ceasefire,” Macron added.
Both sides reported a new wave of overnight attacks.
Momentum towards a ceasefire in the more than three-year-old conflict has stalled since the latest round of talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia in March.
The White House said that both sides had agreed to a truce in the Black Sea, but Moscow said it would only take effect once the West lifted sanctions targeting its state-owned agricultural lender.
The US has made support for Ukraine contingent upon receiving profits from its rare earth minerals, a deal for which fell through after an explosive meeting between Zelensky and Trump in the Oval Office in February.
Ukraine announced earlier that it would send officials to Washington “this week” for talks on a deal.
Trump wants the deal as compensation for the billions of dollars worth of military and financial aid given to Ukraine by his predecessor, Joe Biden.
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