Five hours of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and top United States negotiators did not yield a breakthrough compromise on a possible Ukraine peace deal, a Kremlin aide said early Wednesday.

Moscow pounded Ukrainian power infrastructure with drone and missile strikes on Saturday and Kyiv launched a deadly strike of its own on southwestern Russia, a day before talks involving senior European and U.

The European Union has decided to indefinitely freeze €210bn worth of Russia ’s assets, so that Hungary and Slovakia, two countries with friendly relations with Moscow, cannot prevent billions of euros from being used to support Ukraine.