MOSCOW/VIENNA - Russia is seeking to achieve the goals of its special military operation in Ukraine via a peace agreement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.
"For us, the preferable path is to reach our goals through a deal -- a peace agreement," Peskov told All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company.
But if Ukraine "shows no willingness to negotiate, we will force it to do so by continuing and completing the special military operation," Peskov said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump held a phone conversation on Wednesday. The call, initiated by the Russian side, lasted over 90 minutes and was "frank and businesslike," Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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The Kremlin said both Putin and Trump share broadly similar views of the Kiev authorities, which insist on dragging out the conflict at the behest of major European powers.
On Saturday, Russian Foreign Ministry's Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik said that Ukraine showed no readiness for peace and was instead intensifying strikes on civilian targets in Russia.
According to the Ukrinform news agency, during the phone conversation with Trump, Putin said that Russia was ready to declare a ceasefire on May 9, the day Russia celebrates Victory Day.
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On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he has instructed his representatives to contact Trump's team and clarify the details of Russia's proposal for a short-term ceasefire.
Ukraine, for its part, is proposing a long-term ceasefire, reliable and guaranteed security, and lasting peace, Zelensky noted.
Ukrainian attacks leave 2 dead
Also on Sunday, Ukrainian attacks left two people dead and four others injured in Russia's Donetsk region and another two wounded in the Belgorod region, local authorities said.
A married couple were killed and another man injured in the Kalininsky district of Horlivka in a Ukrainian drone attack, local governor Denis Pushilin wrote in a post on the Russian social media platform Max.
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In the Tsentralno-Gorodskoy district of Horlivka, a man sustained serious injuries when an unexploded cluster munition detonated. Two other men were wounded in a separate drone strike in a settlement within the Mariupol urban district.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region, said that a Ukrainian drone struck a commercial facility, damaging the building and seven passenger vehicles, adding that a 17-year-old girl was critically injured and a 20-year-old man suffered shrapnel wounds to the shoulder.
IAEA: Zaporizhzhia radiation control lab hit
Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Sunday on social media that it had been informed by the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant that a drone had targeted the plant's External Radiation Control Laboratory earlier in the day.
No injuries were reported, and it remains unclear whether the facility, located outside the plant's perimeter, sustained any damage, the agency said.
The IAEA team stationed at the site has requested access to the laboratory to assess the situation.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi reiterated that any attacks in the vicinity of nuclear facilities could pose risks to nuclear safety.
