Russia rains missiles on Ukraine as US mulls ending truce efforts

KHARKIV

Russia fired a fresh volley of missiles and drones at Ukraine overnight, wounding dozens of people, Kiev said Friday, as the United States warned it could end efforts to broker a ceasefire if it did not see progress soon.

A 30-day moratorium on striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin last month has "expired", the Kremlin said Friday.

"The month has indeed expired," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a briefing call, in response to a question by AFP.

"As of this time, there have been no other instructions from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, President Putin."

U.S. President Donald Trump has been pressing Moscow and Kiev to agree to a truce, but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin, despite repeated negotiations between his administration and Russia on the three-year war.

After meeting European officials in Paris to discuss Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington needed to figure out soon whether a ceasefire was "doable in the short term".

"Because if it's not, then I think we're just going to move on," he told reporters at Le Bourget airport before leaving the French capital.

Rubio said European officials had been "very helpful and constructive with their ideas" during talks in Paris on Thursday, which he attended with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and also included top Ukrainian officials.

"We'd like them to remain engaged... I think the U.K. and France and Germany can help us move the ball on this and then get this closer to a resolution," he said.

But "we need to figure out here now, within a matter of days, whether this is doable in the short term, because if it's not, then I think we're just going to move on," he told reporters at the Le Bourget airport.

"We have other priorities to focus on as well."

He said he hoped for "more definitive answers" at a new meeting including the United States, France, Britain, Germany and Ukraine in London "early next week".

Russia fired at least six missiles and dozens of drones at Ukraine overnight, killing two people in the eastern regions of Kharkiv and Sumy and wounding 70 others, officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed the attack, which came just days before Easter.

"This is how Russia started Good Friday — with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, shahed drones. A mockery of our people and cities," he said on Telegram.

An AFP photographer in the city of Kharkiv witnessed the aftermath of one strike, which left rubble and debris scattered across a street.

An elderly resident could be seen bandaged, her face smeared with blood, while residents assessed the damage.

  'Memorandum' on mineral deal 

Since taking office Trump has embarked on a quest to warm ties with the Kremlin that has alarmed Kiev and driven a wedge between the U.S. and its European allies.

Putin last month rejected a joint U.S.-Ukrainian proposal for a full and unconditional pause in the conflict, while the Kremlin has made a truce in the Black Sea conditional on the West lifting certain sanctions.

Trump has also repeatedly expressed anger and frustration at Zelensky in a marked break from policy under his predecessor, Joe Biden.

The U.S. is pushing Ukraine into a deal that would give Washington sweeping access to its mineral resources.

Ukraine's prime minister will visit Washington next week for talks with top U.S. officials aimed at clinching the minerals and resources deal by April 26, according to a U.S.-Ukraine signed "memorandum of intent" published Friday.

Trump wants the deal — designed to give the United States royalty payments on profits from Ukrainian mining of resources and rare minerals — as compensation for aid given to Ukraine under Biden.

  Witkoff on 'Russian side' 

France hosted meetings between U.S. and European officials in Paris on Thursday, saying the talks had launched a "positive process".

The meetings included French President Emmanuel Macron, Rubio and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff.

European officials had expressed dismay at being shut out from the peace process, while Ukraine has expressed concern that Witkoff — one of Trump's closest allies — is biased towards Russia.

Zelensky accused Witkoff on Thursday of having adopted the "strategy of the Russian side", after the U.S. envoy suggested a peace deal with Moscow hinged on the status of Ukraine's occupied territories.

"He is consciously or unconsciously, I don't know, spreading Russian narratives," Zelensky told journalists.

Witkoff told Fox News on Monday that a peace settlement depended on "so-called five territories" — the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea, that Russia claims to have annexed.

The Kremlin wants its claims over the regions to be recognised as part of any peace deal, a proposal that Ukraine has balked at. Moscow does not fully control any of them except for Crimea, which it seized in 2014.

Zelensky also said Thursday he had "information" China was supplying weapons to Russia, amid an escalating row between Kiev and Beijing over China's support for Moscow.

China, which has portrayed itself as a neutral party in the three-year war, has hit back at Kiev's criticism and called on all parties in the conflict to refrain from "irresponsible remarks".