Charles Mainz

Yet months of U.S.-led negotiations have bogged down over Russian demands for additional Ukrainian territory its forces do not hold and Ukraine's need for U.S.-backed security guarantees that Washington is yet to offer.

The Kremlin says its military will simply take what diplomacy doesn't deliver.

Yet critics argue that claim and Russian offers of future American investments once the war is over are mostly negotiating tactics.

Despite Russian forces going up against overstretched Ukrainian defenses, Russian battlefield advances have come at a glacial pace and with heavy losses.

Charles Mainz, NPR News, Moscow.

The trilateral talks marked the third such meeting in recent weeks.

Previous negotiations yielded several goodwill-generating prisoner swaps, but little clarity on how to put an end to the fighting.

Months of U.S.

efforts to negotiate an end to the conflict have bogged down over Russian maximalist demands on Ukrainian territory,

including land not controlled by Russian forces, as well as Ukraine's desire for ironclad security guarantees from the U.S.

should it sign on to a peace deal.

Also unclear what U.S.

protections for Ukraine are on offer or what the Kremlin might accept, on the eve of the talks, President Trump suggested the onus was on Kiev to make concessions, saying Ukraine better come to the table fast.

Charles Mainz, NPR News, Moscow.

Issued by the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, the report claims that analyses of samples from Navalny's remains conclusively showed traces of epibetidine, a toxin found in poisonous frogs in South America.

The report notes that only Russia's government had the means, motive, and opportunity to administer the poison to Navalny while he was serving out a lengthy prison sentence in Russia's Arctic.

The U.S.

says it has no reason to dispute those findings, yet Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the European allegations as biased and unfounded.

Russia's government has always maintained Navalny died by natural causes and declined to launch a criminal investigation into his death.

Charles Mainz, NPR News, Moscow.