Russian President Vladimir Putin buried the lead about whether he would agree to a US-brokered proposal for a 30-day cease-fire in Ukraine.
Asked during a joint press conference on March 13 with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko how he viewed Ukraine’s willingness to take part in a cease-fire, the Kremlin leader gave a heavily qualified answer.
“We agree with the proposals to stop the hostilities, but we proceed from the fact that this cessation should be such that it would lead to long-term peace and eliminate the original causes of this crisis,” he said.
Russian President President Vladimir Putin visits Moscow's armed forces' command center in the Kursk region on March 12.
Russian President President Vladimir Putin visits Moscow's armed forces' command center in the Kursk region on March 12.
Putin then embarked on a lengthy digression about the military situation in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have lost substantial ground in recent days.
The Russian Defense Ministry has claimed control there of the town of Sudzha, and Putin boasted in the press conference that Russian forces had “complete isolation and complete fire control” over Ukrainian forces in the region.
That situation remains fluid, but Putin on March 12 used the opportunity to travel to the region – conspicuously, and unusually, wearing military garb – to strike the pose of a wartime leader.
That visit sent a bellicose signal to Washington. But in his remarks on March 13, Putin was slightly more conciliatory.
“The idea itself [of a cease-fire] is correct, and we certainly support it, but there are issues that we must discuss,” he said.
“I think that we need to talk to our American colleagues and partners about this, maybe call President [Donald] Trump and discuss it together. But the idea itself of ending this conflict by peaceful means is supported by us.”
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The devil, of course, is in the details.
And it remains to be seen what concrete issues Putin wants to raise with Trump, said he hoped Russia would "do the right thing" and agree to the deal while describing Putin's comments as "promising" but incomplete.
“Putin’s position today rejects an unconditional ceasefire—an uncomfortable stance that risks angering Trump and hindering the otherwise promising prospects of normalizing bilateral relations,” wrote analyst and founder/CEO of R. Politik Tatiana Stanovaya.
“However, this rejection is not absolute; he outlines his demands. His key condition is that a ceasefire must serve as a stepping stone to substantive talks on the root causes of the conflict—Ukraine must agree to discuss an “Istanbul Plus” framework, which Russia views as a path to Kyiv’s capitulation.
Putin also requires commitments from the US to halt military supplies, while Kyiv must pledge not to fortify its defense lines or use the pause for rearmament. Zelenskyy’s legitimacy must also be addressed.”
Prominent Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza was more blunt.
In a post on X, Kara-Murza suggested that Putin had inadvertently let slip a fundamental truth.
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“The main ‘root cause’ is an old deranged KGB officer in the Kremlin who views the collapse of the Soviet empire as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century,” calls his opponents “national traitors” and Ukraine “an artificial state,” and idolizes Stalin and Andropov,” Kara-Murza wrote.
“Without ‘eliminating’ this ‘root cause’ there will not be peace not only in Ukraine, but in Europe as a whole.”
The next step in the process, then, may happen on a more personal level when Trump and Putin take up the conversation.