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Russian President Vladimir Putin offered highly conditional support for the proposed 30-day ceasefire deal with Ukraine, quickly adding that he supported the idea in principle but that several difficult issues arising from the three-year-old war must be addressed before he will sign on to the U.S.-backed proposal.
In remarks Thursday evening, Mr. Putin said before Russia could agree to the deal already endorsed earlier this week by Kyiv, but that negotiations must address the presence of Ukrainian troops still inside Russia’s Kursk border region, the possibility of continued arms shipments to Ukraine, and whether the pause in fighting will genuinely lead to a permanent peace acceptable to the Kremlin.
“The idea itself is the right one, and we do support it,” Mr. Putin said. “But there are questions that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to talk them through with our American colleagues and partners.”
Mr. Trump, who met Thursday with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in Washington, told reporters Mr. Putin’s response was “promising,” but that more would be needed.
Putin “put out a very promising statement but it wasn’t complete,” and that he was willing to talk to the Russian president to secure a ceasefire.
“Hopefully Russia will do the right thing,” Mr. Trump said.
SEE ALSO: Trump says Putin’s comments on ceasefire ‘promising’
Ukraine’s acceptance earlier this week of the deal pushed strongly by the Trump administration has put the Kremlin on the spot, as President Trump has hinted at negative consequences for Moscow if it refuses the deal. 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, the Associated Press reported.
Mr. Putin said he expected to talk directly to the American president soon, although Russian officials signaled it would not likely occur Thursday. He listed several questions that still must be answered for a deal to be struck.
“Would it mean that [the Ukrainian troops] there [in Kursk] would leave?” Mr. Putin asked. “Should we release them after they have committed numerous crimes against civilians there, or will the Ukrainian leadership command them to surrender? When will that happen? That’s not clear.”
Mr. Putin added that any ceasefire deal would need to address the underlying causes of the war from Russia’s perspective, including NATO’s expanding presence in Eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War. He also said he would meet with Mr. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who arrived in Moscow Thursday.
Russia’s appetite for a ceasefire may have diminished in recent days as it has taken the initiative in fighting in southern and eastern Ukraine, while also scoring a major breakthrough in trying to drive Ukrainian forces out of Russian territory. Mr. Putin’s comments, made during a meeting with Belarusian ally President Alexander Lukashenko, follow Russia’s announcement Thursday that it had retaken the biggest city in Kursk, driving the Ukrainian army out of the fiercely contested territory.
Mr. Putin’s top aides were even more negative than their boss, saying they feared the American ceasefire plan would only give the pressed Ukrainian army time to regroup and re-arm.
“Our position is that this is nothing more than a temporary respite for the Ukrainian military and nothing more,” Mr. Ushakov told Russian state media Thursday prior to talks with Mr. Witkoff. “We believe that our goal is a long-term peaceful settlement.”
Informal talks
Mr. Trump told reporters Thursday that discussions about ending the war have already begun informally, and include detailed talks about territory swaps, a power plant and security policy. He appeared to suggest that Ukraine will have no choice but to give up some of its territory and write off forever its hopes of joining NATO if it wants a long-term peace deal.
“A lot of the individual subjects have been discussed, discussing concepts of land, because you don’t want to waste time with the ceasefire if it’s not going to mean anything,” Mr. Trump said. “So we say, ‘Look, this is what you can get, this is what you can’t get.’”
“A lot of the details of a final agreement have actually been discussed,” he said. “Now we’re going to see whether or not Russia is there. If they’re not, it’ll be a very disappointing moment for the world.”
Ukraine in its first response expressed deep skepticism about the Russian desire for peace.
“Putin is afraid to say directly to President Trump that he wants to continue this war, that he wants to kill Ukrainians, ” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address to the nation. “That’s why they in Moscow demand such preconditions for a ceasefire that will make it impossible or will [postpone it] as long as possible.”
Andriy Yermak, Mr. Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, added Kyiv would reject any ceasefire plan that effectively froze in place the status quo. Currently, Russian forces occupy about a fifth of Ukraine’s recognized territory, and Russian officials have said they will seek further “buffer zones” inside Ukraine to separate the two armies.
“We will not go for a frozen conflict, [and] our American partners are also against such a scenario,” Mr. Yermak insisted in a television interview, adding Ukraine would insist that European countries that remain strongly behind it must be included in the peace process.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense asserted early Thursday that its troops — including some diverted from the front lines elsewhere inside Ukraine — had retaken the town of Sudzha following a new offensive. Ukrainian forces seized a sizable chunk of the Russian border region in a surprise offensive last summer, and their continued presence inside Russian territory has been a source of continuing embarrassment for the Kremlin.
The Ukraine occupation of the region marked the first instance of a foreign occupation force on Russian soil since World War II.
Ukrainian military officials have not denied or verified Russia’s claim. However, Ukrainian Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi confirmed Wednesday that Russian planes were carrying out offensive strikes in Kursk, adding that the region had been mostly destroyed. He said Kyiv was moving its forces to “more advantageous lines.”
Mr. Putin visited troops in the Kursk region on Wednesday, highlighting the strategic significance of reclaiming the border territory. Since August, Russia’s military has actively engaged in offensive operations in the area to reclaim the territory.
Addressing his commanders in Kursk Wednesday, Mr. Putin said he expected the Russian military to “free” the Kursk region soon. He added that Russia is considering building a border security zone in the region, a concept that could inflame tensions during ceasefire negotiations.
The U.S. officially lifted its pause on military aid to Ukraine on Tuesday following progress made in peace talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials held in Saudi Arabia. The next day, President Trump said that the ball was in Russia’s court as he pressed for a ceasefire.
The Russian president’s ambiguous remarks Thursday left some wondering in Kyiv whether he had in fact agreed to the American ceasefire proposal at all.
“Putin’s modus operandi in negotiations, both on Ukraine and with the West, has always been to use talks as a leverage point to secure concessions,” Timothy Ash, an associate fellow at the Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Program, wrote in an opinion piece for the Kyiv Independent Thursday.
“He sees negotiations as a way to probe for weaknesses and demand concessions. His instinct here will be to play hard to get, drag talks out to show strength, or imply that Russia doesn’t need a ceasefire — the other side is the one that really wants it.”
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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