NEW YORK, April 19. /TASS/. The US has reported that it had developed a draft of a control mechanism overseeing a comprehensive ceasefire in Ukraine at a meeting on the Ukrainian settlement in Paris, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, citing Western officials.
According to the newspaper, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that "the US has presented a framework on how the war might be ended, including a cease-fire, but didn’t say what it entails."
On April 17 in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron met with Rubio and US special envoy Steven Witkoff. According to the Elysee Palace, these "constructive negotiations" helped to "bring their positions closer" on resolving the conflict in Ukraine.
On Thursday, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said that a ceasefire in Ukraine is unrealistic at this point, given the Kiev regime’s non-compliance with the moratorium on strikes on energy infrastructure.
On March 18, US President Donald Trump put forward a proposal for a suspension of attacks on energy infrastructure by the parties to the conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately issued the relevant order to the Russian military. Later, Vladimir Zelensky declared that Ukraine would support the proposal to stop attacks on energy facilities.
However, from March 18 to April 16, the Ukrainian side carried out strikes on energy facilities in 15 Russian regions: the Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Zaporozhye, Kursk, Lipetsk, Rostov, Krasnodar, Saratov, Smolensk, Tambov and Kherson regions, as well as Crimea and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. The strikes were carried out using unmanned aerial vehicles and FPV drones, as well as various types of artillery, including HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems. As Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS earlier, Kiev has not actually observed the moratorium since March 18, and its attempts to attack Russian energy facilities continue.