Kyiv: 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 US labours 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 realise 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.”
US 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 in 2022. Trump has chided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for steps that he said were “prolonging”
the “killing field.”