Just hours after President Donald Trump said peace talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin were on hold to avoid wasting his time, the Kremlin launched intense overnight strikes that killed at least six people in Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials said the Russian attacks on Kyiv and other cities were the latest proof that Putin was not ready for peace and merely wanted to use negotiations to drag out the war.
Asked about Trump’s remarks, the Kremlin said Wednesday that neither president wanted to waste time — and cautioned that any meeting would require further “preparation.”
Two children were among those killed in the overnight strikes on the Ukrainian capital and other cities, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post. In total over the past 24 hours, at least 13 people were killed and dozens others injured in Russian attacks across Ukraine, according to local officials.
As in previous years, when the frigid months are about to bite, Russia has targeted energy facilities in an attempt to put Ukrainians in the cold and dark.
“Another night proving that Russia does not feel enough pressure for dragging out the war,” Zelenskyy said. He called on Western allies to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles capable of striking deeper into Russia, saying that Moscow had been emboldened to up its attacks by Kyiv’s current lack of such capabilities.
“Russia continues to do everything to weasel out of diplomacy,” he said in his nightly address. “The greater Ukraine’s long-range reach, the greater Russia’s willingness to end the war.”
The attacks came after Trump confirmed his much anticipated meeting with Putin in Hungary had been shelved.
“I don’t want to have a wasted meeting; I don’t want to have a waste of time,” Trump said, adding that he would “see what happens” as events played out.
Asked about Trump’s comments Wednesday, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that neither Trump nor Putin “wants to waste time.” He called them “two presidents who are accustomed to working effectively and efficiently, but effectiveness always requires preparation.”
The American president’s remarks came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reasserted Tuesday that Russia opposed an immediate ceasefire before talks begin.
“This is the basic difference which is existing now between Russia and the United States,” Andrei Fedorov, former deputy foreign minister of Russia, told NBC News in an interview in Moscow on Wednesday.
Putin and his team have not shifted publicly during these talks about talks, insisting on hardline demands and balking at the insistence from Kyiv and its European allies to halt fighting along current lines before conducting deeper negotiations.
Trump this week echoed that European position.
Though Trump has claimed victories in helping calm other global conflicts, Ukraine — a war he once said he could solve in 24 hours — has so far proved more difficult. He has variously sought to strongarm Zelenskyy and Putin with few tangible results.
Trump essentially pressed pause on his latest effort, believing both sides in the conflict were not ready to seriously talk peace, after he was briefed on a “productive” call between Lavrov and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a senior White House official told NBC News.
Despite this, the would-be host of the Trump-Putin summit said it could still happen.
Viktor Orban, Hungary’s Prime Minister who is a long-time ally of Trump’s and has warm relations with Putin, said that his ambassador in Washington was still working on the meeting.
“Preparations for the peace summit continue,” Orban wrote on Facebook. “The date is still uncertain. When the time comes, we will organize it.”
Keir Simmons and Natasha Lebedeva contributed.
