The Japan Times - Russia rains missiles on Ukraine as US mulls ending truce efforts

US President Donald Trump has been pressing Moscow and Kyiv to agree to a truce, but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin, despite repeated negotiations between his administration and Russia on the three-year war.

After meeting European officials in Paris to discuss Ukraine, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington needed to figure out soon whether a ceasefire was "doable in the short term".

"Because if it's not, then I think we're just going to move on," he told reporters at Le Bourget airport before leaving the French capital.

Russia fired at least six missiles and dozens of drones at Ukraine overnight, killing two people in the eastern regions of Kharkiv and Sumy and wounding 70 others, officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed the attack, which came just days before Easter.

"This is how Russia started Good Friday -- with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, shahed drones. A mockery of our people and cities," he said on Telegram.

An AFP photographer in the city of Kharkiv witnessed the aftermath of one strike, which left rubble and debris scattered across a street.

An elderly resident could be seen bandaged, her face smeared with blood, while residents assessed the damage.

- 'Memorandum' on mineral deal -

Since taking office Trump has embarked on a quest to warm ties with the Kremlin that has alarmed Kyiv and driven a wedge between the US and its European allies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last month rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for a full and unconditional pause in the conflict, while the Kremlin has made a truce in the Black Sea conditional on the West lifting certain sanctions.

Trump has also repeatedly expressed anger and frustration at Zelensky in a marked break from policy under his predecessor, Joe Biden.

The US is pushing Ukraine into a deal that would give Washington sweeping access to its mineral resources.

Ukraine's prime minister will visit Washington next week for talks with top US officials aimed at clinching the minerals and resources deal by April 26, according to a US-Ukraine signed "memorandum of intent" published Friday.

Trump wants the deal -- designed to give the United States royalty payments on profits from Ukrainian mining of resources and rare minerals -- as compensation for aid given to Ukraine under Biden.

- Witkoff on 'Russian side' -

France hosted meetings between US and European officials in Paris on Thursday, saying the talks had launched a "positive process".

The meetings included French President Emmanuel Macron, Rubio and US envoy Steve Witkoff.

European officials had expressed dismay at being shut out from the peace process, while Ukraine has expressed concern that Witkoff -- one of Trump's closest allies -- is biased towards Russia.

Zelensky accused Witkoff on Thursday of having adopted the "strategy of the Russian side", after the US envoy suggested a peace deal with Moscow hinged on the status of Ukraine's occupied territories.

"He is consciously or unconsciously, I don't know, spreading Russian narratives," Zelensky told journalists.

Witkoff told Fox News on Monday that a peace settlement depended on "so-called five territories" -- the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea, that Russia claims to have annexed.

The Kremlin wants its claims over the regions to be recognised as part of any peace deal, a proposal that Ukraine has balked at. Moscow does not fully control any of them except for Crimea, which it seized in 2014.

Zelensky also said Thursday he had "information" China was supplying weapons to Russia, amid an escalating row between Kyiv and Beijing over China's support for Moscow.

China, which has portrayed itself as a neutral party in the three-year war, has hit back at Kyiv's criticism and called on all parties in the conflict to refrain from "irresponsible remarks".

T.Ueda--JT