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The Russian President “put out a very promising statement but it wasn’t complete… Hopefully Russia will do the right thing,” said Donald Trump this evening, after Vladimir Putin broke his silence on Washington’s 30-day ceasefire proposal and voiced his heavily caveated “support”.
Speaking during a press conference at the Kremlin with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, Putin told reporters: “The very idea of ending this conflict by peaceful means we support that”.
But he insisted there are “serious issues” that need to be resolved before the proposal for an immediate halt to fighting can progress any further.
Perhaps most significant - or indeed least promising - was his demand that any ceasefire should “remove the root causes of this crisis”.
While he didn’t elaborate on what he meant, this is sure to be a sticking point. Going off previous comments, we can make an educated guess that he is alluding to what “provoked” Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, including NATO expansion and the fact that Ukraine is a sovereign state, free to pursue its own policy at home and abroad.
Aside from objecting to Ukrainian sovereignty, this comment suggests Putin is keen to revisit wider demands beyond Ukraine, including a call for NATO to halt the deployment of weapons in member states that joined after 1997, when the military alliance began expanding into former communist countries.
The Russian president also voiced his concern today that a ceasefire would give Ukrainians a chance to rearm and regain momentum at a time when Russian troops are “advancing in practically all areas of the contact line”.
Yesterday, Putin donned a military uniform and visited the Kursk region for the first time since Ukraine launched its surprise cross-border incursion in August 2024. There, he ordered his troops to quickly expel all Ukrainian forces from Russian territory before official peace talks start. Speaking on state television, he declared: “I am counting on the fact that all the combat tasks facing our units will be fulfilled, and the territory of the Kursk region will soon be completely liberated from the enemy”.
Speaking today alongside Lukashenko, Putin enthusiastically addressed the progress being made in Kursk, insisting: “The situation is fully under our control, and the group that invaded our territory has been fully isolated.” The Ukrainian troops in the region have been encircled, he added, and will either have to “surrender or die.”
Putin’s response to the US-proposed temporary truce is in many respects unsurprising. He has plenty of reason to show some willingness to co-operate with Trump, meaning a flat-out “no” was perhaps unlikely.
But, with the Russian military advancing, an immediate halt to hostilities is not in the Kremlin’s interest. Or certainly not until Moscow has entirely stripped Kyiv of the small piece of Russian territory that it has clung onto since the summer in the hope of using it as leverage in peace negotiations. Putin wants Ukraine to come to the table devoid of any territorial bargaining power.
So, for now, his tactic may well prove to be making polite noises to the Americans about their proposed truce, while seeking to postpone its onset for as long as possible.
Tonight, Putin is due to meet US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow, where he will no doubt elaborate on what a ceasefire that “removes the root causes of this crisis” would entail.
Who knows what exactly Witkoff will make of this version of history.
Caitlin Allen
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