Despite US-brokered ceasefire, Russia says peace with Ukraine still a long way off

MOSCOW- The Kremlin on Saturday said that the United States was in a hurry to clinch a peace deal to end the Ukraine war but that getting to any sort of agreement was a very long way off because the issues were so complicated.

Russia and Ukraine confirmed on Friday that they had agreed to a U.S.-brokered three-day ceasefire that will run from May 9 to May 11, and U.S. President Donald Trump said he hoped it would be extended.

"It is understandable that the American side is in a hurry," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television reporter Pavel Zarubin.

"But the issue of a Ukrainian settlement is far too complex, and reaching a peace agreement is a very long way with complex details," Peskov said.

Russian troops have been fighting in Ukraine for well over four years - longer than Soviet forces fought in World War Two, known as the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 in Russia.

Trump has repeatedly promised to end the Ukraine war, casting it as a "stupid" and "crazy" war that is inflicting vast casualties on both sides, but he has yet to achieve peace.

- Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Guy Faulconbridge/Reuters