US calls for concrete proposals to end Ukraine war
|
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says now is the time for concrete proposals from Moscow and Kyiv to end the war in Ukraine and warned America will step back as a mediator if there is no progress.
At a later United Nations Security Council meeting, US diplomat John Kelley blamed Russia for the continuing bloodshed, saying it had “regrettably” carried out high-profile strikes “causing needless loss of life, including of innocent civilians”.
“Right now, Russia has a great opportunity to achieve a durable peace,” Kelley said, while adding that the burden for ending the war rests with Russia and Ukraine.
“It is up to the leaders of both these countries to decide whether peace is possible. If both sides are ready to end the war, the United States will fully support their path to a lasting peace,” he said.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce cited Rubio as saying that the time had been reached at which “concrete proposals need to be delivered by the two parties on how to end this conflict”.
“How we proceed from here is a decision that belongs now to the president. If there is not progress, we will step back as mediators in this process,” Bruce told a regular news briefing, referring to President Donald Trump, who has sought to secure a deal to end the conflict, but made clear his impatience.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared a three-day ceasefire from May 8-10 to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies in World War II.
Ukraine has questioned why Moscow would not agree to Kyiv’s call for a ceasefire lasting at least 30 days and starting immediately.
Bruce told reporters the US was seeking a “complete, durable ceasefire and an end to the conflict”, not a “three-day moment so you can celebrate something else”.
Since taking office in January, Trump has upended US policy toward the war, pressing Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire while easing pressure on Russia, although his irritation with Russia has appeared to grow.
Swarms of Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Dnipro late on Tuesday local time, killing at least one person and injuring at least 38, officials said.
And a Ukrainian drone slammed into a car on a highway in Russia’s border Belgorod region, killing two people and injuring three in the first of a series of attacks during the day, according to the regional governor.
Meanwhile Russia’s President Vladimir Putin signed a decree renaming the airport in Volgograd as Stalingrad, as the city was known when the Soviet army defeated the Nazi German forces in the biggest battle of World War II.
“In order to perpetuate the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, I hereby decree … to assign the historical name ‘Stalingrad’ to Volgograd International Airport,” the decree published on the Kremlin’s website said.
Stalingrad, which was renamed Volgograd in 1961, was the bloodiest battle of the war, when the Soviet Red Army, at a cost of more than one million casualties, broke the back of German invasion forces in 1942-43.
Reuters
