Russia-Ukraine war latest: Kremlin responds to US threat to abandon peace talks

More than 100 people were reported to have been injured in Russian strikes on Kharkiv.

President Zelensky wrote on social media: “Today, we have expanded our Ukrainian sanctions against nearly a hundred more entities—natural and legal persons—most of whom are involved in the production of such missiles—Iskanders—like those that struck our Kharkiv. Many of these entities are Russian, but unfortunately, some are also from China.”

China’s foreign ministry has dismissed the accusation as groundless.

US vice-president JD Vance said his country was optimistic it could end the war, as he met Italian PM Giorgia Meloni for a second time in 24 hours.

“I want to update the prime minister on some of the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine … even in the past 24 hours, we think we have some interesting things to report on,” Mr Vance said.

“Since there are the negotiations I won’t prejudge them, but we do feel optimistic that we can hopefully bring this war, this very brutal war, to a close.”

A Russian court has handed down a prison sentence of nearly three years to a young activist who used 19th-century poetry and graffiti to protest against the war in Ukraine.

A witness in the court said Darya Kozyreva, 19, was found guilty of repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian army after she put up a poster with lines of Ukrainian verse on a public square and gave an interview to a Russian-language service of Radio Free Europe.

She pleaded not guilty, calling the case against her “one big fabrication” but was sentenced to two years and eight months in jail.

In December 2022, she sprayed “Murderers, you bombed it. Judases” in black paint on a sculpture outside St Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum representing the city’s links with Mariupol.

Last year, after being fined for posting about Ukraine online, Kozyreva was expelled from the medical faculty of St Petersburg State University.

Kozyreva told the court: “I have no guilt, my conscience is clear,” she said, according to a transcript. “Because the truth is never guilty.”

Russia used Iskander cruise missiles in an attack on Kharkiv that wounded more than 100 people, according to Ukraine’s President Zelensky.

He said that Chinese companies on which Kyiv had imposed sanctions were involved in the production of Russian Iskander missiles.

Iskander missiles are designed for precision strikes on critical infrastructure.

The number of people known to have been injured in Russian attacks on Kharkiv has risen to more than 100, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky says.

And he hit out at the “outright scumbag” who ordered attacks on civilians at Easter.

“These are completely different people—some elderly, some very young. All they were doing was living their lives in their own country, in their own city — and that alone makes them targets for Russia and its missiles,” he wrote on social media.

“One must be an outright scumbag and despise life to carry out such missile strikes on an ordinary city on Good Friday, the eve of Easter.

“And when we appeal to our partners—primarily the United States—for Patriot systems and missiles for them that can protect against this Russian evil—against cruise missiles and ballistic threats—we are asking for the kind of protection every nation deserves.”

President Trump has said Ukraine-Russia peace talks are “coming to a head” and hinted the world would know soon whether he will continue to push for a peace deal.

Asked what he wanted in order to keep negotiations going, he replied: “I have to see my whole life has been one big negotiation, and I know when people are playing us, and I know when they’re not.

“And I have to see an enthusiasm to want to end it. And I think I see that enthusiasm. I think I see it from both sides, but you’re going to know soon.”

Asked whether he would continue to support Ukraine if he decided to move on, he said: “Well, I’m not going to say that, because I think we’re going to get it done.”

And asked whether he believed Vladimir Putin was stalling, Mr Trump said: “I hope not.”

US president Donald Trump has said “we will take a pass” on trying to resolve the Ukraine war if either Russia or Ukraine makes it too difficult to end the conflict.

Trump said, however, that he did not want to say he was walking away from the talks. He said he still believed there is a good chance to end the conflict.

“It’s coming to a head right now,” he said.