US President Donald Trump's envoy Keith Kellogg attended Ukraine's independence celebrations Sunday in Kyiv, as the push to end the war appeared to have stalled, with Ukraine and Russia trading accusations of hampering the peace efforts.

Ukraine launched a wave of drone strikes on Russia on Sunday, triggering a fire at a nuclear power plant as Ukrainians marked their independence day against a backdrop of a grinding conflict now in its fourth year.

After a flurry of diplomacy and a push by US President Donald Trump to broker a summit between his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, hopes for peace dimmed when Russia on Friday ruled out any immediate meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western countries on Sunday of looking "for a pretext to block negotiations" and slammed Zelensky for "demanding an immediate meeting at all costs" with Putin.

On Friday, Lavrov said "no meeting" between Putin and Zelensky was planned.

Zelensky for his part said Russia was "trying to wriggle out of holding a meeting".

"Together, Ukrainians and our partners, we are working to push Russia to........

© International Business Times