Moscow said Friday that peace talks with Kyiv were on "pause" as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin still had plans to try to capture the whole of Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump warned meanwhile that he was fast running out of patience with Putin, who has shown no intention of halting or slowing his ground offensive or barrage of aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities.
The latest setback to the faltering diplomacy comes as Russia's army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus, and as NATO said it planned to bolster forces on its eastern flank after Russian drones were downed over Poland this week.
Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to open peace talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there has been no significant progress towards ending the three-and-a-half-year war, triggered by Russia's invasion.
Moscow's army is grinding forward on the battlefield and Putin has vowed to carry on fighting if his demands for peace — including Ukraine ceding yet more land — are not met.
"Our negotiators have the opportunity to communicate through channels. But for now, it is probably more accurate to talk about a pause" in talks with Kyiv, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "You can't wear rose-tinted glasses and expect that the negotiation process will yield immediate results," he added.
Speaking at a conference in Kyiv, Zelensky told the West not to trust Putin and said his maximalist ambitions had not changed.
"Putin's goal is to occupy all of Ukraine. And no matter what he tells anyone, it is clear that he has set the war machine in motion to such an extent that he simply cannot stop it unless he is forced to fundamentally change his personal goals," Zelensky said.
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