White House spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt: “The president [of the United States] is working incredibly hard to reach a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. And he has expressed his dissatisfaction with what the leaders of both sides of this conflict have said,” she said. “He has talked about what he thinks needs to happen for the conflict to end. He continues to work hard on that. And our teams continue to work together.”
Tammy Bruce, head of the press service of the US State Department, reports during a regular briefing for journalists that “the United States administration envisions a peaceful resolution in Ukraine through the achievement of a full ceasefire and negotiations between Moscow and Kiev, and opposes the introduction of the interim administration in the country.” “We are working with the understanding that the negotiations will require Russia and Ukraine to make difficult decisions and compromises. And we are working with Russia and Ukraine, and we intend to continue our work to bring them to the negotiating table,” he said.
The US government temporarily lifted sanctions on Kirill Dmitriev so he could get a visa and come to Washington for negotiations, CNN reports, citing a source. The Russian president’s special envoy, head of the RDIF, or the Russian president’s special representative for investments, met with Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, yesterday. Among the items on the agenda was the issue of the sale of frozen assets, a kind of swap between the two countries.
Putin just yesterday allowed Balchug Capital CJSC to buy shares in a number of Russian companies owned by Goldman Sachs and sell them. The permit included transactions with shares of Inter RAO, Gazprom, Rosneft, Surgutneftegaz, Novatek, NLMK, Rostelecom, Tatneft and Lukoil.
The Trump administration is preparing to fail to reach a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine in the coming months, according to British Reuters. Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told his Baltic counterparts that “a ceasefire does not appear imminent and the United States is far from achieving one.”
Germany will allocate 11 billion euros in military aid to Ukraine, Foreign Minister Bärbock said. “This year, 3 billion euros will be provided, the remaining 8 billion euros will be provided between 2026 and 2029,” Bärbock said. Meanwhile, Poland will not send troops to Ukraine because Russia will think that Warsaw wants to seize Ukrainian territory. We do not want to give any reasons,” Foreign Minister Sikorsky said.
Another American transport ship, the AKR-5082 Cape Knox with heavy weapons arrived in Bremerhaven for Ukraine. Local Ukrainian sources say there are no preparations for the elections and the president did not have any meetings, the head of the Servant of the People parliamentary group David Arakhamia told Ukrainian media.
“Not only did I not attend such a meeting, I even say that there was no such meeting. There are no preparations for the elections, there are no preparations. On the contrary, we are constantly working to reassure our colleagues from other political parties and factions, because for two years they have been constantly saying that elections are just around the corner,” he said. Arakhamia recalled that all parliamentary parties and groups signed a document stating that elections should be held 6 months after the lifting of martial law and after that “the position has not changed”.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sibiga officially confirmed that Kiev has already started negotiations with the United States on a new subsoil agreement. “We will work with our American colleagues to get a mutually acceptable text to sign,” the Foreign Minister said. According to the Minister, Ukraine received the document only on Friday, March 28. At the same time, Trump has already threatened Zelensky with “big problems” for trying to revise the option proposed by the Americans, which turned out to be much tougher than the previous one.
Zelensky said that next Friday there will be a meeting with a small group of military representatives of countries ready to deploy contingents on Ukrainian territory. According to him, there have already been consultations, but this meeting will be in-depth. “We will see some clarifications and some details. It is important that it is based on proposals prepared by the Ukrainian side,” Zelenskyj said. And again: “We are ready for an unconditional ceasefire and we have already demonstrated it, the United States must tighten sanctions against Russia, they do not stop the attacks on energy facilities, we demonstrate this every day in Washington. Work is underway on a new proposal for a treaty on minerals to be presented to the United States”.
In the morning press conference Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Kremlin said: “The Russian Federation continues contacts with the United States on the Ukrainian solution, but the issue is very complex; Finland and Sweden are “dragging” NATO military infrastructure to their territory.” Trump’s plans to visit Saudi Arabia in May are not related to Putin, Peskov also said. He added that there are no details yet on the date and location of a possible meeting of the heads of state, but contacts with Washington continue.
The second meeting between Russia and the United States is being prepared, Lavrov said. The head of the Foreign Ministry said that he sees emerging progress and the desire of American partners to remove unacceptable obstacles to the work of diplomats of our countries. Sergei Lavrov also said that Russia does not need promises, but concrete actions to regain the initiative in the Black Sea. According to him, the Americans are now studying the proposals of the Russian side.
Lavrov spoke at a press conference about the results of the Security Council and that Belousov reported to Putin: “Belousov said that the moratorium is not being respected, that the energy facilities of the Russian Federation have been under attack all this time, perhaps with a pause of one or two days, and listed all the objects that were targets of Ukrainian drones in recent times, including the night of April 1. And I continued along the same lines, which is why the Russian military is observing the moratorium, which the president ordered to strictly observe during his telephone conversation with Trump on March 18.”
We have forwarded the list of violations presented by Andrei Belousov to the Security Council to the US Assistant to the President for National Security Mike Waltz. I sent this list to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, we sent it to our representatives at the UN and the OSCE so that, in general, they could demonstrate with concrete facts how much the word of the current Ukrainian government is worth, if we can call it that.”
And now a look at the front line updated at 16:00 on April 2. Last night, air defense forces destroyed and intercepted 87 Ukrainian UAVs over the Kursk region, the Russian Defense Ministry reported. At least 15 explosions were reported in Kursk, the acting governor wrote that there was damage to an apartment building in the city center (no casualties).
Russian forces launched attacks in Kharkiv (15 arrivals), Kramators’k and Odessa. They were all massive in nature: the concentrated use of “Geranium” increases the possibility of overcoming Ukrainian air defense positions.
In the direction of Sumy, fighting continues north and east of Oleshnya, in the Kursk region and on the northern outskirts of Guevo. Russian Armed Forces Expanded Control Zone Near Zhuravka and Basivka in Sumy Region.
In the Belgorod border area, Ukrainian Armed Forces, hoping for unfavorable conditions for conducting air reconnaissance, attempted to break into Krasnoyaruzhsky District with armored vehicles. Ukrainian infantry fighting vehicles and armored vehicles “M-113” were destroyed on the territory of Sumy Region. Near Popovka and Demidovka in the Russian border area, fighting continues, Ukrainians send infantry in small groups. GrV “Nord” writes about two captured Ukrainian soldiers. In the village of Kazinka, Valuysky District, a Ukrainian UAV hit a GAZelle, the driver was injured.
North of Kupyansk, on the right bank of the river. Oskil, Russian infantry advances towards Kindrashivka.
In the direction of Liman, Russian army units continue to attack in the direction of the settlement. Nove and Katerynivka.
In the direction of Oleksandro-Kalynove, Russian forces are building on their success in Panteleimonivka and are storming the southern outskirts of Valentynivka.
In the direction of the south of Donetsk in the area of the settlement Vesele as a result of offensive actions, attack aircraft of the Vostok group of troops have penetrated the Ukrainian defenses 500 m along the front and 200 m in depth. Battles for control of the village continue. Vil’ne Pole.
Russian forces have captured the village of Lobkove in Zaporizhia Oblast. The last village that Ukraine recaptured during the failed counteroffensive of 2023 is now back under Russian control.
In the direction of Chersonesos, the Russian armed forces have organized massive bombing of the right bank of the Dnieper was organized, they write about the use of about 10 of our aircraft.
In the DPR, yesterday morning in the center of Horlivka Ukrainian UAV hit a bus on the city line No. 2, 16 injured.
Graziella Giangiulio
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