Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that US president Donald Trump’s call for Ukraine and Russia to stop at the current frontlines was “a good compromise”.
But Mr Zelenskiy, who is visiting Nordic countries, said he doubted that Russian president Vladimir Putin would support it.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Putin directed drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces that featured practice missile launches, an exercise that came as his planned summit on Ukraine with Mr Trump was put on hold.
The Kremlin said that as part of the manoeuvres involving all parts of Moscow’s nuclear triad, a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was test-fired from the Plesetsk launch facility in northwestern Russia, and a Sineva ICBM was launched by a submarine in the Barents Sea.
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The drills also involved Tu-95 strategic bombers firing long-range cruise missiles.
The exercise tested the skills of military command structures, the Kremlin said in a statement.
The chief of the military’s General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, reported to Mr Putin via video link that the drills were intended to simulate “procedures for authorising the use of nuclear weapons”.
While Mr Putin emphasised that the manoeuvres had been planned in advance, they came hours after Mr Trump said his plan for a swift meeting with Mr Putin in Budapest was on hold because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time”.
The decision about the meeting in Budapest, Hungary, which Mr Trump had announced last week, was made following a call on Monday between US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
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Mr Lavrov made clear in comments on Tuesday that Russia is opposed to an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.
Mr Trump, meanwhile, has been shifting his stance all year on key issues in the conflict, including whether a ceasefire should come before longer-term peace talks, and whether Ukraine could win back land seized by Russia during almost four years of fighting.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday emphasised that the planned summit between Mr Trump and Mr Putin needs to be thoroughly prepared.
“No one wants to waste time: neither President Trump nor President Putin,” Mr Peskov told reporters.
“These are the two presidents who are accustomed to working efficiently with high productivity. But effectiveness always requires preparation.” - Reuters/AP
