Ukraine and the USA/Russia peace talks

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Russia and Ukraine blamed each other on Sunday for breaking a one-day Easter ceasefire declared by President Vladimir Putin, with each side accusing the other of hundreds of attacks and the Kremlin saying there was no order for a ceasefire extension.

Putin, who sent thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022, ordered his forces to stop all military activity along the front line in the three-year-old war until midnight Moscow time on Sunday.

TASS news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying there was no order from Putin to extend the ceasefire.

In Washington, the State Department said it would welcome an extension.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Moscow’s actions in coming days “will reveal Russia’s true attitude toward U.S. peace efforts” and a proposed 30-day ceasefire.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was pretending to observe the Easter ceasefire, but had carried out hundreds of artillery attacks on Saturday night, and more on Sunday.

Russia launched 67 assaults from midnight until 8 p.m. local time, Zelenskyy wrote on X.

“Either Putin does not have full control over his army, or the situation proves that in Russia, they have no intention of making a genuine move toward ending the war, and are only interested in favorable PR coverage,” Zelenskyy posted.

However, there were no air raid alerts today. Hence, this is a format of ceasefire that has been achieved and that is the easiest to extend,” he said, proposing that Russia abandon drone and missile strikes on civilian targets for at least 30 days.

If Russia does not agree, it will be proof that it intends to continue doing only those things that destroy human lives and prolong the war, Zelenskyy added.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukraine had broken the ceasefire more than 1,000 times, damaging infrastructure and causing civilian deaths.

The apparent failure to observe even an Easter ceasefire shows how hard it will be for U.S. President Donald Trump to clinch a lasting peace deal. The president still struck an optimistic note Sunday, saying that “hopefully” the two sides would make a deal “this week” to end the conflict.

President Donald Trump slammed Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, accusing him of derailing negotiations to end the war in Ukraine while a peace deal was “very close.”

In a long post on Truth Social, Trump described Zelenskyy’s rejection of Russia's takeover of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, as “very harmful” to achieving peace.

“It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War,” Trump wrote.

Zelenskyy has consistently rejected the suggestion that his country give up its claim to the Crimean Peninsula.

“There’s nothing to talk about here,” he said at a media conference Tuesday. “This is against our constitution.”

The latest setback comes during a week in which the Trump administration has doubled down on efforts to push Kyiv and Moscow toward a truce. Next week marks 100 days of Trump's second presidential term, and he promised to end the war on his first day back in office. Rubio suggested last week that the United States may walk away from ceasefire efforts, failing any further progress.

Vance said earlier in the day that he was “optimistic” about the talks but also doubled down on the threat to walk away from negotiations.

“I think that we put together a very fair proposal,” he told reporters on his trip in India. “We’re going to see if the Europeans, the Russians and the Ukrainians are ultimately able to get this thing over the finish line.”

Earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the U.S. has not set a deadline for a ceasefire and that "Russia does not consider it appropriate to set deadlines either," Russian news agency Tass reported.

"The downgrading is significant," said Bence Németh, a senior lecturer in the defense studies department at King’s College London, citing Zelenskyy's rejection of Russia's maintaining control of Crimea as part of any deal.

Rubio and Witkoff's absence "suggests that Washington is increasingly disinterested in drawn-out, multilateral negotiations," Németh added. "This is not just about diplomacy fatigue. It also signals a hard pivot: The U.S. is not positioning itself as a neutral mediator."

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce confirmed Tuesday that Rubio would skip the meeting hours after saying the opposite. “That is not a statement regarding the meetings. It’s a statement about logistical issues in his schedule,” he said.

Despite initial plans to attend the scheduled talks, neither Rubio nor Witkoff were in London on Wednesday, a European diplomat told NBC News.