Envoys from Washington, Kyiv and European nations gathered for talks in Britain on Wednesday amid a new US push to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, but a planned meeting of foreign ministers was postponed.
The London meeting comes as US media reported that President Donald Trump is ready to accept recognition of annexed land in Crimea as Russian territory, and as fresh air strikes shattered a brief Easter truce.
The reports said the proposal was first raised at a similar meeting with European nations in Paris last week. Trump has since threatened to “take a pass” on efforts to end the conflict unless progress is made quickly.
A Russian drone strike on a bus transporting workers in the southeastern city of Marganets killed at least nine people and wounded at least 30 more, the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor said on Wednesday.
Ukrainian authorities also reported strikes in the regions of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Poltava and Odesa.
In Russia, one person was reported wounded by shelling in the Belgorod region.
UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, had been due to lead Wednesday’s meeting, but his ministry said that the talks had been downgraded in a sign of the difficulties surrounding the negotiations.
According to other media, President Vladimir Putin had told US presidential envoy Steve 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.
