United States Vice President JD Vance warned on Wednesday that the US would “walk away” unless Russia and Ukraine agree to a peace deal, as envoys from Washington, Kyiv and European nations gathered for downgraded talks in Britain.
“We’ve issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it’s time for them to either say ‘yes’ or for the United States to walk away from this process,” Vance told reporters in India.
US media reported that President Donald Trump was ready to accept recognition of annexed land in Crimea as Russian territory, and Vance said land swaps would be fundamental to any deal.
“That means the Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own,” he added.
The reports said the proposal was first raised at a meeting with European nations in Paris last week.
The latest round of diplomacy comes amid a fresh wave of Russian air strikes that shattered a brief Easter truce.
A Russian drone strike on a bus transporting workers in the southeastern city of Marganets killed nine people and wounded at least 30 more, the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor said on Wednesday. Ukrainian authorities also reported strikes in the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Poltava and Odesa regions.
In Russia, one person was reported wounded by shelling in the Belgorod region.
The Financial Times, President Vladimir Putin told Witkoff he was prepared to halt the invasion and freeze the current front line if Russia’s sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula, annexed in 2014, was recognised.
Peskov responded by saying that “a lot of fakes are being published at the moment,” according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
Zelensky said on Tuesday that his country would be ready for direct talks with Russia only after a ceasefire, though the Kremlin has said it cannot rush into a ceasefire deal.
Trump promised on the campaign trail to strike a deal between Moscow and Kyiv in 24 hours, but has since failed to secure concessions from Putin to halt his troops in Ukraine.
He said at the weekend he hoped an agreement could be struck “this week”.
warned that the US could walk away from peace talks unless it sees quick progress.
Trump “wants to see this war end … and he has grown frustrated with both sides of this war, and he’s made that very known”, his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday.
Rubio had said in Paris he would go to London if he thought his attendance could be useful. But Lammy wrote on X late Tuesday that he had instead had a “productive call” with Rubio.
Trump proposed an unconditional ceasefire in March, the principle of which was accepted by Kyiv but rejected by Putin.
The White House welcomed a separate agreement by both sides to halt attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days, but the Kremlin has said it considers that moratorium to have expired.
