President Vladimir Putin is open to peace in Ukraine and intense work is going on with the United States, but the conflict is so complicated that the rapid progress which Washington wants is difficult to achieve,

Last week, the president issued a rare rebuke of Putin while later suggesting that the Russian leader may not be serious about wanting peace.

Washington, Moscow and Europe have all produced conflicting ceasefire proposals this month, with two of the proposals appearing in the past week. The administration of US President Donald Trump presented Ukraine with its proposal on April 17,