Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he agrees in principle with a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, but the terms need to be worked out, and he emphasized that it should pave the way to lasting peace.
“So the idea itself is correct, and we certainly support it,” Putin told a news conference in Moscow. “But there are issues that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to discuss it with our American colleagues and partners.”
He noted that Ukrainian troops are encircled in their last foothold in Russia’s Kursk region, and it’s necessary to determine before a ceasefire whether they will lay down weapons and surrender.
He said he will decide the “next steps” based on his forces’ success in kicking Ukrainian troops out of the Kursk border region.
Putin hailed troops who have made rapid gains there in recent days, before saying: “Based on how the situation on the ground develops, we will agree on the next steps in ending the conflict and reaching agreements acceptable to all.”
He also noted the need to develop a mechanism to control possible breaches of the truce. Another issue, he said, is whether Ukraine could use the 30-day ceasefire to continue mobilization and rearmament.
“We agree with the proposals to halt the fighting, but we proceed from the assumption that the ceasefire should lead to lasting peace and remove the root causes of the crisis,” Putin said.
Putin noted that while it appeared that the U.S. persuaded Ukraine to accept a ceasefire, Ukraine is interested in that because of the battlefield situation, noting that Ukrainian troops that launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk region would be fully blocked in the coming days.
“In these conditions, I believe it would be good for the Ukrainian side to secure a ceasefire for at least 30 days,” he said.
Earlier in the day, an envoy of U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Moscow for talks on an American-proposed 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine has accepted, but a senior Russian official said the truce would only help Kyiv by giving its weary and shorthanded military a break.
The diplomatic effort coincided with a Russian claim that its troops have driven the Ukrainian army out of a key town in Russia’s border region where Moscow has been trying for seven months to dislodge Ukrainian troops from their foothold.
The Russian Defense Ministry’s claim that it recaptured the town of Sudzha, a Ukrainian operational hub in Kursk, came hours after President Vladimir Putin visited his commanders in Kursk.
The renewed Russian military push and Putin’s high-profile visit to his troops unfolded as Trump seeks a diplomatic end to the war, which began more than three years ago with Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The U.S. on Tuesday lifted its Mrch 3 suspension of military aid for Kyiv after senior U.S. and Ukrainian officials reported making progress on how to stop the fighting during talks in Saudi Arabia.
Trump said Wednesday that ‘it’s up to Russia now” as his administration presses Moscow to agree to the ceasefire. The U.S. president has made veiled threats to hit Russia with new sanctions if it does not engage in peace efforts.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov would not comment on Moscow’s view of the ceasefire proposal.
“Before the talks start, and they haven’t started yet, it would be wrong to talk about it in public,” he told reporters.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC Thursday that Trump is “willing to apply maximum pressure on both sides,” including sanctions that reach the highest scale on Russia.
Senior U.S. officials have said they hope to see Russia stop attacks on Ukraine within the next few days.
