Russia is showing signs of a willingness to engage in substantive negotiations over Ukraine, even as Moscow currently is intent on ‘destroying’ its neighbor, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said on Sunday,

Sherman, in an interview with Fox News Sunday, said the US is putting ‘enormous pressure’ on Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a cease-fire in its weeks-old invasion of Ukraine and to allow the creation of humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to escape.

‘That pressure is beginning to have some effect. We are seeing some signs to have real, serious negotiations. But I have to say … so far it appears Vladimir Putin is intent on destroying Ukraine,’ Sherman said.

Sherman’s comments come on the heels of news that American freelance filmmaker Brent Renaud has been shot dead while covering the war.  

Renaud, 51, was in a car with other journalists in Irpin, near Kyiv, when Russian troops opened fire. 

His death was announced by Andrey Nebitov, the head of Kyiv’s police department, who said in a Facebook post that he paid ‘with his life for trying to highlight the aggressor’s ingenuity, cruelty and ruthlessness.’ 

He also shared a video, taken by a police officer at the scene, who said a third journalist was wounded.

Another US journalist who survived the attack spoke to a reporter for Italian paper Internazionale from the hospital. 

Following a Russian attack on a military base near Poland’s border where NATO defenses are deployed, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said he did not believe a NATO-imposed no-fly zone over Ukraine would have prevented that.

And he said that while a no-fly zone has a ‘nice air policing sound,’ such a move by NATO would hurl the United States into war with Russia.

‘There is very little that you can see that would make sense for this war to be escalated between two nuclear powers,’ Kirby told ABC’s ‘This Week.’ 

‘There are two objectives we have. One is to support Ukraine in every way and indeed since the Biden administration began we’ve put $1.2 billion forward in security assistance to help Ukraine defend itself against this horrible attack,’ Sherman said on Sunday. 

‘And the second it’s to try to put enormous pressure on Vladimir Putin to change his calculus, to end this war, to get cease-fire in the fist instance, to get humanitarian carters and to end this invasion,’ she added.   

When asked why the US government hadn’t sent MIG-29 jets for Ukraine to use in the battlefield, Sherman said The Pentagon had assessed it was not a reliable option. 

‘If I were President Zelensky I’d want everything and anything I could possibly get, I understand this, The Pentagon however made an assessment…that what Ukrainians really need are anti-craft anti-tank -anti-armor which is what we are supplying them in great measure,’ Sherman said.  

Sherman added that supporting Ukraine was a bipartisan effort for the US, and it sent a message to Putin that he can’t divide America, NATO and Europe. 

‘Right now it looks like it ends very badly already for the Ukrainian people . I think we all spend everyday horrified…It is just awful particularly in Mariupol, where people are either starved to death or freeze to death, or die because they don’t have their medicine, it is truly horrifying.’  

Jake Sullivan warned Putin that there will be ‘appropriate consequences’ after Russian troops shot and killed Renaud in Ukraine.

‘Well, this is obviously shocking and horrifying,’ Sullivan told NBC’s Face the Nation on Sunday morning. ‘I’ve just learned about it as I came on to air here.’

‘I will be consulting with my colleagues, we’ll be consulting with the Ukrainians to determine how this happened and then to measure and execute appropriate consequences as a result of it,’ Biden’s national security adviser added.

The White House did not immediately respond to <a href=”http://DailyMail.com” rel=”nofollow”>DailyMail.com</a> request for comment from President Biden.  It is also not clear if there will be additional action taken by the U.S. in response to the new boundary crossed by Russia on its 17th day of invasion in Ukraine. 

‘I’m obviously sad for that journalist – the journalist’s family. But this is the kind of thing that happens when you fail at the core missions of American security, which is to deter the bad guys from continued aggression,’ Trump-era Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News Sunday host Maria Bartiromo.

On Saturday, negotiators seeking a peace deal discussed ‘concrete’ proposals for the first time, President Zelensky said.

The possible breakthrough came as the invading Russians advanced to within 15 miles of Kyiv.  

Across the country, the Kremlin’s military continued to bombard towns and cities, striking a cancer hospital and a mosque. 

But Ukraine’s president said officials have begun discussing ‘concrete’ proposals rather than ‘exchanging ultimatums’.

Speaking from Kyiv, President Zelensky also invited Russia’s President Putin to engage in face-to-face talks, designed to end the 18-day conflict.

He suggested that the talks could take place in Jerusalem, with Israel’s prime minister Naftali Bennett acting as mediator.

The offer of dialogue followed a 75-minute phone call between President Putin, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about how to end the war.

Russia may be negotiating but it is also increasing its military activity around Kyiv, triggering fears of a significant offensive this week.