Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are on hold, the Kremlin has announced, accusing European countries of obstructing negotiations, while United States President Donald Trump warns he may be running out of patience with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
The comments on Friday come as Moscow says it remains open to dialogue, while it escalates its bombardment of Ukrainian cities and fierce fighting rages in Donetsk in the east.
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“The channels of communication are in place and functioning. Our negotiators can communicate through them. But for now, it is probably more accurate to say there is a pause,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.
“The Russian side remains ready to pursue the path of peaceful dialogue. But it is true that the Europeans are hindering this,” he added without elaborating.
Kyiv’s European allies have been readying further sanctions on Moscow, urging Washington to do the same, and pressing for a ceasefire that failed to materialise after Trump hosted Putin for a summit in Alaska last month.
In an interview with Fox News on Friday, Trump, when asked if his patience with Putin had run out, said: “Yeah. It’s sort of running out and running out fast.”
The US president said he had long had a good relationship with Putin, but expressed frustration at his failure to end the war.
“We’re going to have to come down very, very strong,” he said, adding that sanctions on banks and oil were an option, along with tariffs.
“But I’ve already done it. I’ve done a lot,” Trump said, noting that India – one of the biggest buyers of Russian oil – was facing a 50 percent tariff on its exports to the US.
“That’s not an easy thing to do. That’s a big deal and it causes a rift with India,” he told the Fox & Friends programme. “And remember this, this is a Europe problem, much more than our problem.”
Russia-Belarus military exercises
Trump’s comments and the Kremlin statement came as Russia and Belarus began large-scale military exercises, raising alarm across NATO’s eastern flank just days after Warsaw accused Moscow of sending attack drones across Polish airspace, a major escalation that sent shivers through Europe.
The Zapad 2025 manoeuvres, which run from Friday until Tuesday, are taking place as Russian forces continue their slow advance in Ukraine and intensify air attacks on Ukrainian cities. The Kremlin insists the drills were planned well before the drone incident.
“The objectives of the drills are to improve the skills of commanders and staffs, the level of cooperation and field training of regional and coalition groupings of troops,” Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Telegram.
Peskov stressed the exercises, including those near the Polish border, “are not aimed against any other country”.
But tensions are running high. Poland shut its last open border crossings with Belarus overnight, with state media in Minsk showing guards laying barbed wire along the frontier.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk described the coming period as “critical days”, warning that his country was closer to “open conflict” than at any time since World War II.
“This decision to close the border … is a response to very specific aggressive military exercises against Poland that are starting in Belarus,” Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said. “We are doing this for the safety of our citizens. Russia has been behaving aggressively towards Poland in recent days and for many years … towards the entire civilised world.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha welcomed his Polish counterpart Radosław Sikorski in Kyiv before talks on shared security on Friday.
“Against the backdrop of Russia’s escalation of terror against Ukraine and provocations against Poland, we stand firmly together,” Sybiha wrote on X.
Baltic states step up security
Neighbouring Lithuania and Latvia, also NATO members, have stepped up security and announced partial airspace closures. Belarus says the drills will take place near Borisov, east of Minsk.
In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Moscow’s intentions went beyond its war in Ukraine. “The meaning of such actions by Russia is definitely not defensive and is directed precisely against not only Ukraine,” he said.
Zapad exercises are normally held every four years. The last, in 2021, mobilised some 200,000 Russian soldiers shortly before Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This year’s version is expected to be smaller, as much of Russia’s military remains committed to the battlefield. Belarus initially announced 13,000 soldiers would join, later halving that figure.
Polish officials believe the drills may simulate an attack on the Suwalki corridor – the narrow stretch of NATO territory linking Poland and Lithuania between Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave. Military planners see the corridor as one of the alliance’s most vulnerable points.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko dismissed those concerns as “utter nonsense”, while officials in Minsk earlier claimed the exercises were shifted away from NATO borders “to reduce tensions”.
In the meantime, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said France will summon the Russian ambassador on Friday over this week’s drone incursion into Poland’s airspace, which he told France Inter radio was a deliberate strategy.
France will deploy three Rafale fighter jets to help Poland protect its airspace after the drone incursions, French President Emmanuel Macron said late on Thursday.
In addition, expanded German air policing over Poland is already in effect, a Defence Ministry spokesperson said on Friday in Berlin. “Aviation already established operational readiness yesterday evening,” the spokesperson said at a regular government news conference.
Drone attacks and deaths
On the ground on Friday, three people were killed and five injured in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s border region of Sumy, regional governor Oleh Hryhorov wrote on Telegram, adding that Russia used drones and missiles.
The Ukrainian Air Force posted on the social media platform that the Russian military attacked with 40 drones, and 33 of them were destroyed.
Separately, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Russian border region of Belgorod, said a woman died in the area as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack.
The Ministry of Defence in Moscow announced on Friday morning that 221 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted over 13 Russian regions.