Kremlin says a deal to end the war with Ukraine can't be achieved
quickly
[April 30, 2025]
By ILLIA NOVIKOV
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Clinching a deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war “is
far too complex to be done quickly,” a senior Kremlin official said
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 45 civilians, officials said. The
United Nations reported that the number of Ukrainian civilian casualties
in the more than three-year war has surged in recent weeks amid
Washington's attempts to broker a peace agreement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin backs calls for a ceasefire before
peace negotiations, “but before it’s done, it’s necessary to answer a
few questions and sort out a few nuances,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov said. Putin also is 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 crisis settlement is far too
complex to be done quickly,” Peskov said. “There are many 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 said he could end in the first 24 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. 24, 2022.
Trump has chided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for steps that
he said 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 of lives lost in the conflict. Senior U.S. officials have warned
that the administration could abandon the peace efforts, if it sees no
solution. That could spell an end to crucial military help for Ukraine
and heavier economic sanctions on Russia.
The U.S. State Department on Tuesday tried again to push both sides to
move more quickly.
“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.
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In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service,
firefighters put out a fire following a Russian drone attack that
hit apartment buildings in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 30,
2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
“How we proceed from here is a decision that belongs now to the
president,” she told reporters, relating a conversation that she had
with Rubio. “If there is not progress, we will step back as
mediators in this process.”
Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for an immediate and
full 30-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 said 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 breaking previous
truces. Independent verification of the battlefield claims wasn't
possible.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian civilians have been killed or wounded in
attacks every day this year, according to a U.N. report presented
Tuesday in New York.
The U.N. Human Rights Office said in the report that in the first
three months of this year, it had verified 2,641 civilian casualties
in Ukraine. That was almost 900 more than during the same period
last year.
Also, between April 1-24, civilian casualties in Ukraine were up 46%
from the same weeks in 2024, it said.
The Ukrainian air force said that Russia fired 108 Shahed and decoy
drones at Ukraine between Tuesday and Wednesday, predominantly at
the cities of Dnipro and Kharkiv.
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