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 promptly a senior Kremlin official explained 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 bureaucrats announced The United Nations informed that the number of Ukrainian civilian casualties in the more than three-year war has surged in newest 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 insufficient questions and sort out a limited nuances Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented 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 dilemma settlement is far too complex to be done promptly Peskov stated on his daily conference call with reporters There are a great 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 reported 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 policies that he disclosed 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 representatives have warned that the administration could abandon the peace efforts if it sees no fix 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 swiftly 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 informed 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 revealed 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 latest previous truces Independent verification of the battlefield insists 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 description presented Tuesday in New York The U N Human Rights Office announced in the account 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 commented 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 Provision 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 informed 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