Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia agreed with US proposals for a ceasefire in Ukraine but any truce would have to deal with the root causes of the conflict and that many crucial details needed to be sorted out. Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 has left hundreds of thousands of dead and injured, displaced millions of people, reduced towns to rubble and triggered the sharpest confrontation between Moscow and the West in decades. Putin\u2019s support – though caveated \u2014 for the US ceasefire proposal offers the best chance so far to end the biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two, as Ukraine had also agreed to the proposal at talks earlier in the week. \u201cWe agree with the proposals to cease hostilities,\u201d Putin told reporters at a news conference in the Kremlin following talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. \u201cThe idea itself is correct, and we certainly support it. But we proceed from the fact that this cessation should be such that it would lead to long-term peace and would eliminate the original causes of this crisis.\u201d Putin thanked US President Donald Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker for his efforts to end the war, which both Moscow and Washington now cast as a deadly proxy war which could have escalated into World War Three. Trump had said in the White House on Wednesday that he hoped the Kremlin would agree to the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine said it would support, to end what Trump called the \u201cbloodbath\u201d. \u201cI can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to do that because I want to get peace. I want to see peace and we\u2019ll see. But in a financial sense, yeah, we could do things very bad for Russia. It would be devastating for Russia.\u201d Trump has threatened harsher sanctions on Moscow should it fail to negotiate, but sanctions relief if it agrees to a ceasefire in Ukraine. Russia advancing Russian forces have been advancing since mid-2024 and control nearly a fifth of Ukraine\u2019s territory. Putin said Russian forces were moving forward along the entire frontline and said the ceasefire would have to ensure that Ukraine did not seek to simply use it to regroup. Meanwhile, Putin on Wednesday donned a camouflage uniform to visit a command post in the Kursk region of western Russia where Ukraine is poised to lose its foothold after a major offensive by Russian forces. \u201cHow can we and how will we be guaranteed that nothing like this will happen? How will control [of the ceasefire] be organised?\u201d Putin said. \u201cThese are all serious questions. \u201cThere are issues that we need to discuss. And I think we need to talk to our American colleagues as well.\u201d Putin said he might call Trump to discuss the issue. Putin\u2019s top foreign policy aide said on Thursday that he had told Washington that a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the United States to pause the war in Ukraine would simply give Kyiv\u2019s forces a much-needed battlefield respite. Trump\u2019s Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow today to meet Putin. Russian officials said US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz had provided details on the ceasefire idea on Wednesday and Russia was ready to discuss it. Yuri Ushakov, a former ambassador to Washington who speaks for Putin on major foreign policy issues, told state television that he had spoken to Waltz on Wednesday to outline Russia\u2019s position on the ceasefire. \u201cI stated our position that this is nothing other than a temporary respite for the Ukrainian military, nothing more,\u201d Ushakov said. \u201cOur goal is a long-term peaceful settlement that takes into account the legitimate interests of our country and our well-known concerns. It seems to me that no one needs any steps that [merely] imitate peaceful actions in this situation,\u201d he said. Asked if Russia was, therefore, rejecting the proposal, Ushakov, who has served alongside Putin in the Kremlin since 2012, said that the president would likely speak to the media later today and outline Russia\u2019s position in more detail. The remarks from such a senior Kremlin official indicate that Putin, Russia\u2019s paramount leader since 1999, thinks that Russia\u2019s advances on the battlefield in Ukraine and western Russia give Moscow a strong hand in peace negotiations. Two Russian industry sources told Reuters that Russia\u2019s industry and trade ministry was asking companies to suggest which sanctions most urgently needed to be lifted. The ministry was not immediately available for comment. The Kremlin said it believes all sanctions are illegal and should be lifted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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