KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine and its European allies accused Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday of feigning interest in peace efforts after five hours of talks with U.S. envoys in the Kremlin produced no progress.
The Russian leader “should stop the madness and the bloodshed and be ready to come to the table and stand for a just and lasting peace,” said UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged Putin to “stop wasting the world’s time”.
The comments reflect the high tensions and chasm between Russia, on the one hand, and Ukraine and its European allies, on the other, over how to end the war Moscow started when it invaded its neighbor nearly four years ago.
A day earlier, Putin accused the Europeans of sabotaging US-led peace efforts – and warned that if provoked, Russia would be ready for war with Europe.
Since the 2022 invasion, European governments, along with the US, have spent billions of dollars to support Kiev financially and militarily. Under President Donald Trump, however, the US has tempered its support — and instead made a push to end the war.
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said Tuesday’s Kremlin talks between Putin and US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were “positive” but would not give details.
It is not clear where the peace talks are going now
Where the peace talks go from here depends largely on whether the Trump administration decides to increase pressure on Russia or Ukraine to make concessions.
A US peace proposal that became public last month was criticized for being heavily tilted towards Moscow because it accepted some of the Kremlin’s core demands that Kiev dismissed as non-starters.
Many European leaders worry that if Putin gets his way in Ukraine, he will have free rein to threaten their countries, which have already faced incursions by Russian drones and warplanes and an alleged large-scale sabotage campaign.
The Russian and American sides agreed on Tuesday not to disclose the substance of their Kremlin talks, but at least one major obstacle to a deal remains – the fate of four Ukrainian regions that Russia has partially occupied and claims as its own.
After the talks, Ushakov told reporters that “so far, no compromise has been found” on the territory issue, without which the Kremlin sees “no solution to the crisis.”
Ukraine has ruled out giving up the territory that Russia captured.
Asked if peace was closer or further away after the talks, Ushakov said: “Not further, that’s for sure.”
“But there is still a lot of work to be done, both in Washington and in Moscow,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that it was “not correct” to say that Putin rejected the US peace plan. He declined to elaborate on the discussions.
“We’re not going to add anything deliberately,” he said. “It is understood that the quieter these negotiations are, the more productive they will be.”
Europeans step up assistance to Ukraine
Foreign ministers from European NATO countries, meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, showed little patience with Moscow.
“What we see is that Putin has not changed course. He is making more aggressive efforts on the battlefield,” said Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna. “It’s pretty obvious he doesn’t want to have any kind of peace.”
The Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Elina Valtonen, made the same note. “So far we haven’t seen any concessions from the aggressor, which is Russia, and I think the best confidence-building measure would be to start with a total ceasefire,” she said.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Ukraine’s partners would continue to provide military aid to ensure pressure on Moscow was maintained.
“The peace talks are ongoing. That’s good,” Rutte said.
“But at the same time, we have to make sure that while they’re happening and we’re not sure when they’re going to end, that Ukraine is in the strongest possible position to continue the fight, to fight the Russians,” he said.
Canada, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands have announced that they will spend hundreds of millions of dollars more together to buy American weapons to donate to Ukraine.
Unlike the Biden administration, the Trump administration has not approved arms donations to Ukraine. Instead, he sold them directly to Kiev or NATO allies who give them to Ukraine.
War brings more lives
Russia and Ukraine are engaged in a grim war of attrition on the battlefield and are using drones and missiles for long-range strikes behind the front lines. Many analysts noted that the slowdown favors Russia’s larger military, especially if disagreements between Europe and the US or among the Europeans prevent the delivery of weapons to Ukraine.
Russian drones struck the town of Ternivka in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, killing two people and injuring three others, according to the head of the regional military administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko. Two people were in critical condition, he said, after the attack destroyed one house and destroyed six others.
Overall, Russia shot down 111 attack and capture drones overnight, the Ukrainian air force said.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had destroyed 102 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Falling drone debris sparked a fire at an oil depot in the Tambov region, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Moscow, Governor Yegveniy Pervyshov said.
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Cook reported from Brussels.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine