Kyiv [Ukraine], April 19: Senior U.S. officials have given mixed signals about the prospect of reaching a ceasefire in Ukraine, bringing uncertainty to the peace process shortly after Russia announced that the ceasefire on energy targets had expired.
Russia strikes long-range attack on Ukrainian territory
RT quoted the Russian Defense Ministry as saying on April 18 that the country's forces had launched long-range attacks on Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) production facilities and enemy airport infrastructure.
The attacks were carried out at dawn on April 18, using UAVs and precision-guided missiles, targeting the main facilities of Ukraine's military-industrial complex. The Russian Defense Ministry announced that the operation had been successful.
April 18 also marks the expiration of the US-brokered moratorium on energy infrastructure.
A month ago, on March 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian Defense Ministry to stop attacking Russian energy facilities for 30 days.
The ceasefire was agreed during a phone call between Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump to support Washington-brokered peace talks.
While Ukraine has publicly supported the deal, Moscow has accused the Kyiv regime of repeatedly violating the ceasefire, after regularly attacking key gas infrastructure deep in Russian territory.
Responding to a question on the matter, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the one-month deadline had expired, and that "up to this point, there has been no further direction from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, President Putin."
Mixed signals from the Washington administration
Also on April 18, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed that Washington could withdraw from the negotiation process if no progress is made in the coming days. If this happens, the US "has only a way to move forward" because there are many other priorities to pursue, according to AFP.
However, during a visit to Italy, US Vice President JD Vance expressed optimism about the prospect of ending the three-year-old conflict.
Kremlin spokesman Peskov acknowledged that negotiations aimed at achieving peace over the conflict in Ukraine are "difficult", but stressed that Moscow remains committed to finding a solution to the problem.
According to the Kyiv Independent, the United States has shared with European allies the details of a peace plan to end hostilities in Ukraine.
The proposal, made during a meeting chaired by the Paris administration in the French capital on April 17, includes provisions for easing sanctions on Russia, as well as cutting off Kyiv's path to joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The implementation of the above roadmap will lead to a cessation of the conflict and Russia will continue to administer the territories annexed from Ukraine.
A European official said the proposal still needs to be discussed with the Kyiv government, nor does it provide a definitive solution to the conflict, and that countries that support Ukraine will not recognize Moscow-controlled territories under Russia's legal jurisdiction.
Russia-Ukraine prisoner exchange
Russia and Ukraine will conduct a new round of prisoner exchanges on April 19, in an effort brokered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Reuters cited sources familiar with the matter.
Nearly 500 Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war and 46 wounded soldiers from the two countries will be repatriated under the latest round of exchanges.
In total, each side will receive 246 prisoners from the enemy.
Kyiv and Moscow have regularly exchanged prisoners since Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine, in which the UAE mediated 13 batches.
The total number of prisoners exchanged under the UAE initiative now stands at 3,233.
In another development, the Kyiv government said on April 18 that it had received 909 bodies of servicemen who died in battle handed over by the Russian side.
Russia, for its part, usually does not make public the number of corpses of soldiers repatriated. However, AFP quoted Russian media and military bloggers as saying that Ukraine returned 41 bodies of servicemen killed in action to Russia in the latest exchange.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper