By Pavel Polityuk and Dmitry Antonov
KYIV/MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia and Ukraine pounded each other with heavy overnight missile attacks as diplomatic efforts to end the war faltered, with the White House saying there were no imminent plans for presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to meet.
Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday that Russian attacks had killed six people, including two children, in Kyiv and the nearby region, and forced power outages nationwide.
Ukraine’s military said late on Tuesday that it used Franco-British Storm Shadow air-launched missiles to strike a chemical plant in southern Russia’s Bryansk region.
Putin and Trump spoke last week and agreed to hold a summit in Hungary that the Kremlin said could take place within a couple of weeks.
TRUMP DOESN’T WANT WASTED MEETING
But following a phone call on Monday between the two countries’ top diplomats, the White House said the next day that Trump had no plans to meet Putin “in the immediate future”. Trump said he did not want to have a wasted meeting – something Moscow also says it wants to avoid.
Russian officials said, however, that preparations continued for a summit.
“The dates haven’t been set yet, but thorough preparation is needed before then, and that takes time,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“It’s clear that all of this is surrounded by a great deal of gossip, rumours, and so on. Much of it is completely untrue. There’s no news yet.”
The delay came after Russia reiterated to the U.S. its previous terms for reaching a peace deal, including that Ukraine cede control of the whole of the southeastern Donbas region, three sources told Reuters.
That amounted to a rejection of Trump’s statement last week that both sides should stop at the current front lines.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by state news agency RIA as saying he could not confirm that Moscow had conveyed its position as reported by Reuters.
“Preparations for the summit are continuing,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying. “I don’t see any major obstacles.”
He added: “It’s a difficult process, I admit – but that’s precisely what diplomats are for.”
SHARES IN EUROPEAN DEFENCE COMPANIES RISE
Through the first nine months of his second term, Trump has pressed for an end to the conflict, the deadliest in Europe since World War Two.
Sharply critical at times of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, he has also expressed frustration and disappointment with Putin – but has not followed through on his repeated threats of new sanctions against Moscow.
Shares in European defence companies rose on news of the delay to the Putin-Trump summit. Most European governments strongly back Kyiv and have pledged to raise their military spending to help Ukraine meet its defence needs.
Zelenskiy was due to meet Sweden’s prime minister on Wednesday at the development and manufacturing centre of Saab, which makes fighter jets, surveillance aircraft, missile systems and anti-tank weapons.
“Russian words about diplomacy mean nothing as long as the Russian leadership does not feel critical problems. And this can be ensured only through sanctions, long-range capabilities, and coordinated diplomacy among all our partners,” Zelenskiy said.
Ukraine said there were emergency power outages in most regions of the country as a result of the latest Russian attacks.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha appealed to Kyiv’s international partners to mobilise “additional energy support” to prevent a humanitarian crisis as winter approaches.
(Additional reporting by Kyiv and Moscow bureaux, writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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