US President Donald Trump has voiced growing frustration at the lack of progress towards a ceasefire in the three-year-long conflict, despite his administration holding talks with both Ukrainian and Russian officials. The US leader in March said that he was “pissed off” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and on Sunday told reporters: “We’d like them to stop. I don’t like the bombing. The bombing goes on and on.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday “Putin does support the idea that a ceasefire is needed, but before that a whole range of questions have to be answered.” “These questions are hanging in the air, so far no one has given an answer to them,” he added, blaming the lack of progress on “the Kyiv regime’s uncontrollability”.
Putin rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional and full ceasefire in March, while the Kremlin has made a US-proposed truce in the Black Sea dependent on the West lifting certain sanctions. US secretary of state Marco Rubio said Trump was not “going to fall into the trap of endless negotiations” with Russia, while French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday urged Moscow to stop using “stalling tactics”.
