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Russia views efforts to end its three-year war with Ukraine as “a drawn-out process,” a Kremlin spokesman said Monday, after US President Donald Trump expressed frustration with the two countries’ leaders as he tries to bring about a truce.
“We are working to implement some ideas in connection with the Ukrainian settlement. This work is ongoing,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
“There is nothing concrete yet that we could and should announce. This is a drawn-out process because of the difficulty of its substance,” he said when asked about Trump’s anger at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments dismissing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s legitimacy to negotiate a deal.
Russia has effectively rejected a US proposal for a full and immediate 30-day halt in the fighting. The feasibility of a partial ceasefire on the Black Sea, used by both countries to transport shipments of grain and other cargo, was cast into doubt after Kremlin negotiators imposed far-reaching conditions.
Trump promised during last year’s US election campaign that he would bring Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II to a swift conclusion.
Peskov didn’t directly address Trump’s criticism of Putin on Sunday when he said he was “angry, pissed off” that Putin had questioned Zelensky’s credibility as leader.
But he said that Putin “remains absolutely open to contacts” with the US president and was ready to speak to him.
Both countries are preparing for a spring-summer campaign on the battlefield, analysts and Ukrainian and Western officials say.
Zelensky said late Sunday that there has been no letup in Russia’s attacks as it drives on with its invasion of its neighbor that began in February 2022. He said the attacks demonstrated Russia’s unwillingness to forge a settlement.
“The geography and brutality of Russian strikes, not just occasionally, but literally every day and night, show that Putin couldn’t care less about diplomacy,” Zelensky said in his daily address.
“And almost every day, in response to this proposal, there are Russian drones, bombs, artillery shelling, and ballistic strikes,” he said.
He urged further international pressure on Moscow to compel Russia to negotiate, including new sanctions.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas picked up on that theme at a meeting of some of the bloc’s top diplomats in Madrid on Monday.
“Russia is playing games and not really wanting peace,” Kallas told reporters ahead of the meeting, which was due to discuss the war. “So our question is, how can we put more pressure on Russia.”
Trump said he would consider adding further sanctions on Russia, which already faces steep financial penalties, and using tariffs to undermine its oil exports.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, came under another Russian drone attack overnight, injuring three people, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said Monday.
Russia also fired two ballistic missiles and 131 Shahed and decoy drones, the Ukrainian air force said.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses shot down 66 Ukrainian drones early Monday over three Russian regions.
“The continuing attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces on Russia’s energy facilities show the complete lack of respect for any obligations related to the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine by the Kyiv regime,” the ministry said in a statement.

MANILA: Manila’s Filipino Muslim community gathered at one of the capital region’s largest parks on Monday for Eid Al-Fitr prayers, followed by family picnics to mark the end of Ramadan. 

In the predominantly Catholic Philippines, Muslims make up around 10 percent of the country’s population of over 120 million.

While most of them live on the island of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago in the country’s south, Manila is also home to more than 173,000 Filipino Muslims. 

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last month declared April 1 a national holiday for the first of the two main holidays observed in Islam.  

But like many others across the Islamic world, Filipino Muslims upheld the tradition of morning Eid prayers on Monday, with 15,000 people gathering at the Quezon Memorial Circle. 

“Eid Al-Fitr is a huge celebration among the Muslim community, especially here in the Philippines, and the culmination of the sacrifice that we had for the holy month of Ramadan,” Aleem Guiapal, a government official who is originally from Cotabato City, told Arab News. 

“What makes Eid Al-Fitr special is the level of spirituality that we achieved for almost 30 days.”  

Families were central to the occasion, and many took their young children along to share meals and play at the park in Metro Manila. 

“We consider Eid Al-Fitr as a family day and, at the same time, a day to celebrate the ending of the month of Ramadan,” Lucman bin Usman said. 

“We came here so that the children can play and also to really feel the Eid spirit and also the festivities.” 

For Aida Villegas, who is originally from Zamboanga, the morning visit to the park was only the beginning of Eid festivities. 

“Everyone is (welcome) to come here, and there’s a playground. So, it’s a really good spot for the families, and then there’s a bazaar,” she said, referring to a halal bazaar of food and clothes organized by the local government. 

“Families come here during Eid to pray, eat, play, shop and then we go back home, and we do house to house. It doesn’t end here.”