RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has said that he agrees in principle with a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, but he emphasised that the terms have yet to be worked out and any truce should pave the way to a lasting peace.
“The idea itself is correct and we certainly support it,” he told a news conference in Moscow on Thursday.
“But there are issues that we need to discuss and I think that we need to talk about it with our American colleagues and partners and, perhaps, have a call with President Trump and discuss it with him.”
US President Donald Trump said Mr Putin had “put out a very promising statement, but it wasn’t complete.
“Now we’re going to see whether or not Russia’s there. And if they’re not, it’ll be a very disappointing moment for the world.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Mr Putin was “essentially preparing to reject” the ceasefire.
He said the Russian leader was “afraid to tell President Trump directly that he wants to continue this war, that he wants to kill Ukrainians,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address to the nation.
“That is why, in Moscow, they are surrounding the idea of a ceasefire with such preconditions that nothing will come of it — or, at least, it will be delayed as long as possible.”
Mr Putin, he added, “often behaves in this way. He doesn’t say ‘no’ outright but ensures that everything drags on and that normal solutions become impossible.”
The Russian president, who launched the invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, noted the need to control possible breaches of the truce and signalled that Russia would seek guarantees that Ukraine would not use the break in hostilities to rearm and continue mobilisation.
“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,” he said.
Mr Putin said it appeared that the US had persuaded Ukraine to accept a ceasefire and that Ukraine was interested in the proposal because of the battlefield situation, particularly in Kursk.
He thanked Mr Trump “for paying so much attention to the settlement in Ukraine.”
Mr Putin also thanked the leaders of China, India, Brazil and South Africa for their “noble mission to end the fighting,” a statement which suggested that those countries could be involved in a ceasefire deal.
Russia has said it would not accept peacekeepers from any Nato member countries to monitor a prospective truce.