advancing in recent weeks<\/a>, was going to move only \u201cin one direction\u201d.<\/p>\nWhile welcoming the US efforts, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters on Wednesday that \u201cthere can be no question of any concessions or any surrender of our approaches to those key points.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jim Townsend, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told Al Jazeera that Russia likely perceives Trump as impatient and unfocused and will deploy delay tactics to avoid concessions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could just be a real mess. The Russians don\u2019t feel any pressure. They think they\u2019re going to win if they hold out long enough,\u201d said Townsend, adding that all of the pressure so far has been on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that he was ready to advance the US-backed framework for ending the war and to discuss disputed points with Trump in talks that the Ukrainian leader said should include European allies.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the White House the same day, the US president said resolving the Ukraine war was \u201cnot easy\u201d but added, \u201cWe\u2019re getting close to a deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought that would be an easier [deal], but I think we\u2019re making progress,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kaja Kallas, the European Union\u2019s foreign policy chief, said on Wednesday that there had been \u201czero indication\u201d that Russia was prepared for a ceasefire in Ukraine, however.<\/p>\n
Kallas said additional sanctions against Moscow were necessary along with increased support for Kyiv and insisted that any peace agreement must include concrete concessions from Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe focus of any agreement must be on what Russia should do,\u201d she said, adding Europe must ensure Moscow \u201cwill never attack again\u201d.<\/p>\n
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also said that while Europe wants the war to end as quickly as possible, \u201can agreement negotiated by great powers without the approval of the Ukrainians and without the approval of the Europeans won\u2019t be a basis for a real, sustainable peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEurope is not a plaything but a sovereign actor for its own interests and values,\u201d Merz told lawmakers in Berlin.<\/p>\n
Drone attacks continue<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia came under a large Russian drone attack overnight.<\/p>\n
The head of the regional military administration, Ivan Fedorov, said at least 19 people were wounded and more than 50 residential buildings were damaged, including a university dormitory filled with people.<\/p>\n
Russian air defences, meanwhile, downed 33 Ukrainian drones overnight over various Russian regions and the Black Sea, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian forces struck a manufacturing plant in Cheboksary in western Russia that produces equipment and components for cruise and ballistic missiles, Ukraine\u2019s General Staff also said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kremlin spokesman says talks ongoing as US President Donald Trump pushes for an end to the conflict. Russia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[32,2000,299,12,332,7661,657,49,286],"class_list":{"0":"post-596084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-russia","13":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","14":"tag-ukraine","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-us-canada"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115618873559849452","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}