By LORNE COOK and ILLIA NOVIKOV

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine and its European allies accused Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday of feigning interest in peace efforts after five hours of talks with U.S. envoys at the Kremlin produced no breakthrough.

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The Russian leader “should end the bluster and the bloodshed and be ready to come to the table and to support a just and lasting peace,” said U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged Putin to “stop wasting the world’s time.”

The remarks reflect the high tensions and gaping gulf between Russia on one side and Ukraine and its European allies on the other over how to end a war that Moscow started when it invaded its neighbor nearly four years ago.

A day earlier, Putin accused the Europeans of sabotaging the U.S.-led peace efforts — and warned that, if provoked, Russia would be ready for war with Europe.

Since the 2022 invasion, European governments, along with the U.S., have spent billions of dollars to support Kyiv financially and militarily. Under President Donald Trump, however, the U.S. has tempered its support — and instead made a push to end the war.

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said Tuesday’s talks at the Kremlin between Putin and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were “positive” but wouldn’t release any details.

Unclear where peace talks go now

Where the peace talks go from here depends largely on whether the Trump administration decides to increase the pressure on Russia or on Ukraine to make concessions.

A U.S. peace proposal that became public last month was criticized for being tilted heavily toward Moscow because it granted some of the Kremlin’s core demands that Kyiv has rejected as nonstarters.

Many European leaders worry that if Putin gets what he wants in Ukraine, he will have free rein to threaten their countries, which already have faced incursions from Russian drones and fighter jets, and an alleged widespread sabotage campaign.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends an international forum of civil participation “We Are Together” in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (Alexander Shcherbak, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

The Russian and American sides agreed Tuesday not to disclose the substance of their Kremlin talks, but at least one major hurdle to a settlement remains — the fate of four Ukrainian regions Russia partially seized and occupies and claims as its own.

After the talks, Ushakov told reporters that “so far, a compromise hasn’t been found” on the issue of territory, without which the Kremlin sees “no resolution to the crisis.”

Ukraine has ruled out giving up territory that Russia has captured.

Asked whether peace was closer or further away after the talks, Ushakov said: “Not further, that’s for sure.”

“But there’s still a lot of work to be done, both in Washington and in Moscow,” he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday it was “not correct” to say that Putin had rejected the U.S. peace plan. He declined to elaborate on the talks.

“We’re deliberately not going to add anything,” he said. “It’s understood that the quieter these negotiations are conducted, the more productive they will be.”

Europeans step up assistance for Ukraine

Foreign ministers from European NATO countries, meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, showed little patience with Moscow.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde speaks during a committee meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Harry Nakos)

“What we see is that Putin has not changed any course. He’s pushing more aggressively on the battlefield,” Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said. “It’s pretty obvious that he doesn’t want to have any kind of peace.”

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen struck the same note. “So far we haven’t seen any concessions from the side of the aggressor, which is Russia, and I think the best confidence-building measure would be to start with a full ceasefire,” she said.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Ukraine’s partners will keep supplying military aid to ensure pressure is maintained on Moscow.

“The peace talks are ongoing. That’s good,” Rutte said.

“But at the same time, we have to make sure that whilst they take place and we are not sure when they will end, that Ukraine is in the strongest possible position to keep the fight going, to fight back against the Russians,” he said.

Canada, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands announced they will spend hundreds of millions of dollars more together to buy U.S. weapons to donate to Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, center, and European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, Implementation and Simplification Valdis Dombrovskis, right, address a media conference regarding Ukraine’s financing needs for 2026-2027 at EU headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Harry Nakos)

Unlike the Biden administration, the Trump administration has not approved donations of weapons to Ukraine. Instead, it has sold them directly to Kyiv or to NATO allies that give them to Ukraine.

The war claims more lives

Russia and Ukraine are engaged in a grim war of attrition on the battlefield and are using drones and missiles for long-range strikes behind the front line. Many analysts have noted that the slow slog favors Russia’s larger military, especially if disagreements between Europe and the U.S. or among Europeans hampers weapons delivery to Ukraine.

Russian drones hit the town of Ternivka in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, killing two people and injuring three more, according to the head of the regional military administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko. Two people were in critical condition, he said, after the attack destroyed a house and damaged six more.

Overall, Russia fired 111 strike and decoy drones overnight, Ukraine’s air force said.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it destroyed 102 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Falling drone debris sparked a fire at an oil depot in the Tambov region, about 120 miles south of Moscow, Gov. Yegveniy Pervyshov said.

Cook reported from Brussels.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s transport ministry said Wednesday that a private firm will resume a deep-sea hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 later this month, more than a decade after the jet vanished without a trace.

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The search will be carried out by Texas-based marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity, which signed a new “no-find, no-fee” contract with Malaysia’s government in March.

It is unclear if the company has new evidence of the plane’s location. Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Punkett reportedly said last year that the company had improved its technology since 2018, when the firm made its first seabed search operation under a similar deal and found nothing. Punkett has said the firm is working with many experts to analyze data and had narrowed the search area to the most likely site.

Earlier this year the firm restarted the seabed search operation at a new 5,800-square-mile site in the Indian Ocean after Malaysia’s government gave it the greenlight, but the search was halted in April due to bad weather.

Ocean Infinity will be paid $70 million only if wreckage is discovered.

The Boeing 777 plane disappeared from radar shortly after taking off on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, on a flight from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing. Satellite data showed the plane turned from its flight path and headed south to the far-southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.

An expensive multinational search failed to turn up any clues to its location, although debris washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands. Apart from those small fragments, no bodies or wreckage have ever been found.

FILE – A family member of passengers on board of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 holds a flower during the tenth annual remembrance event at a shopping mall, in Subang Jaya, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, March 3, 2024. (AP Photo/FL Wong, File)

Malaysia’s transport ministry said in a brief statement Wednesday that Ocean Infinity will search intermittently from Dec. 30 for a total of 55 days, in targeted areas believed to have the highest likelihood of finding the missing aircraft.

“The latest development underscores the government of Malaysia’s commitment in providing closure to the families affected by this tragedy,” it said.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said, “We … appreciate the efforts made by the Malaysian side.”

Ocean Infinity declined to comment on the search Wednesday in response to an Associated Press email requesting details.

Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed.

Afton State Park will be closed Tuesday-Thursday next week for a special deer hunt, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources announced.

The park will close to all visitors beginning 6 p.m. Monday.

The controlled hunt will be done with muzzleloader firearms and only antlerless deer will be targeted. The hunt is intended to prevent deer overpopulation.

“When deer populations grow too large, they over browse on native plants and young trees, making it harder for forests to regenerate,” said Mark Cleveland, Parks and Trails natural resource policy and program coordinator. “Dense deer herds also create conditions where diseases spread more easily. Special deer hunts in state parks and recreation areas are one of the tools we use to protect natural resources and keep ecosystems healthy.”

Nontoxic ammunition has been required for special hunts in state parks and recreation areas since 2023. Nontoxic ammunition protects other animals from ingesting lead when feeding on dead deer.

Other state parks that will be closed for upcoming hunts include Lake Maria State Park, Friday-Sunday, Dec. 5-7; St. Croix, Sibley, Sakatah Lake and Rice Lake, Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 6-7; and Nerstrand Big Woods, Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 6-7 and Friday-Sunday, Dec. 19-21.

Several Minnesota state parks will have limited access in the coming weeks. Under the limited access, parks remain open to visitors but certain areas may be restricted or designated for hunters only. In some cases, sections of the park will remain open to the public while other sections are open exclusively for hunting.

Crow Wing State Park and Jay Cooke have limited access Saturday-Wednesday, Dec. 6-10. Lake Bemidji has limited access Friday-Sunday, Dec. 5-7. Myre-Big Island has limited access Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 6-7. And Kilen Wood has limited access Dec. 27-Jan. 4.

The DNR encourages anyone planning a trip to check out park alerts and notices at mndnr.gov/park-list.

Permit deadlines to participate in special hunts have passed. For more information about specific park hunts, visit mndnr.gov/parkhunts.

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Minnesota’s housing network is scrambling to adjust to the federal government’s new grant stipulations in housing and homeless programs.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced changes Nov. 14 in its annual Notice of Funding Opportunity for Continuums of Care (CoC). Among them were a cap on permanent housing funding at 30%, requiring treatment in programs, and a ban on any program that recognizes transgender individuals.

Co-Coordinator Patty Beech-Dziuk, who has been with the CoC since it started in the 1990s, said changing priorities with different administrations are expected, but that these shifts are particularly “drastic.”

“Our homeless response system has been built over like 40 years, through Republican and Democratic administrations,” she said. “We’ve made different shifts over the years, but trying to make this drastic of a shift in whatever it is, five or six weeks, it’s just incredibly challenging.”

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, this particular NOFO could cause 3,930 people to lose housing in Minnesota and a loss of $26,595,473 in funding. In Minnesota, 48% of permanent housing beds are currently funded by the CoC program.

Regional impacts

Cara Oakland, CoC co-coordinator with Beech-Dziuk, said 67% of the northeast region’s CoC funding goes toward permanent housing, and under the new restrictions, the northeast region could only submit up to 30% of their total funding and requests permanent housing for 2026.

“Figuring out how to move a permanent housing project to transitional housing in hopes that you can maintain any amount of funding … It’s really difficult, and it’s nearly impossible to figure that out in, essentially, we got four weeks from HUD to figure out what projects get funded and how to rank them,” Oakland said.

Carla Solem, CoC coordinator for the west-central region, said housing projects starting in 2024 served 190 individuals and 79 households — 97 adults and 93 children under age 18.

Currently, 77% of the west-central region’s annual funding goes to permanent housing and 74 of the 79 households were in permanent housing.

Among those supported by the funding, 71 had a mental health disorder and 24 had a physical disability, Solem said. Forty-six of the individuals in the west-central CoC region had experienced domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, stalking and/or human trafficking, and 78 were considered chronically homeless.

Oakland said the northeast region serves similar populations, including veterans.

She said the people served by the programs might not get access to housing otherwise.

“For our region, it’s not about the quantity of people, but the vulnerabilities of the populations that are being served and the risk to them returning to homelessness when these projects are forced to close because of HUD’s changes,” Oakland said.

Shifting priorities

One of the stipulations from HUD in its new Notice of Funding Opportunity goes against the “housing first” strategy — providing housing without requiring preconditions like sobriety or treatment compliance.

Oakland said that from her time in the field, she knows it’s not effective to “force someone into treatment when they are not ready and willing to go.”

“That’s why HUD has pushed ‘housing first’ for so long, because housing first works and it’s proven to work,” she said. “You get them stable and connected to their basic needs, and then you can work on that next step.”

Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville, agreed and said the “cost of pulling housing-first providers in favor of transitory beds will be in human lives.”

“The changes to these Housing and Urban Development grant requirements are a depraved new low — one that will knock down thousands of Minnesotans who are beginning to climb out of homelessness,” she said. “Housing first and harm reduction are proven methods of helping people overcome some of the most difficult challenges a human can face; yet with a stroke of a pen, hundreds of programs that provide these services are cut off from the funds that make their work possible.”

Litigation and uncertainty ahead

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued HUD on Nov. 25 with a coalition of Democratic attorneys general, but Beech-Dziuk said CoC can’t wait until the litigation plays out to apply for grants in the coming year.

“We’re watching it, but we’re also working diligently to meet HUD’s requirements,” she said. “HUD has real specific timelines so that there’s a fair funding process locally … We’re doing all that. And then if something happens with that lawsuit, we will adjust.”

Beech-Dziuk said she’s worried about the northeast region’s ability to backfill in the same way that others, like Duluth or Hennepin County, could.

“Duluth has its own Community Development Block Grant,” she said. “They have some local and county money they devote to addressing homelessness. I mean, the number of people that are homeless is also bigger, but they have a wider variety, where, like, small towns and rural counties and tribes don’t have a lot of the same resources to address homelessness.”

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