Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Moscow was in favour of the principle of a ceasefire in the war against Ukraine, as proposed by the Donald Trump administration in the United States, but raised questions he said the Kremlin needed answers to before it could commit to a truce, Al Jazeera reported.
He said Russia needed to discuss these questions and the terms of a peace proposal with the US.
His comments, the first on the proposed ceasefire, drew criticism from Ukraine and a muted response from Trump, who has oscillated between expressing confidence in Putin’s commitment to a peace deal and threatening Russia with new sanctions if it does not agree to a ceasefire.
On Tuesday, teams representing Washington and Kyiv met in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah to negotiate terms for peace in Ukraine.
After this meeting, the two countries released a joint statement, proposing an “immediate, interim” 30-day ceasefire on the war front.
The statement placed emphasis on “the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of civilian detainees, and the return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children” during the ceasefire period.
The document did not mention sanctions on Russia or security guarantees for Ukraine, but it did mention that Ukraine’s European allies would be “involved in the peace process”.
The document also did not specify what would happen with the Ukrainian soldiers in Russia’s Kursk.
Then, on Thursday, at a news conference alongside Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Putin responded to the ceasefire proposal.
He said the idea of a ceasefire was “correct” and Russia supported it, in principle. “We agree with the proposals to cease hostilities,” he told reporters in Moscow.
But, he added, “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.”
The Russian president outlined three questions and suggested that resolving them in a manner satisfactory to Moscow would be preconditions for the Kremlin to accept a ceasefire.
The first question Putin posed pertains to Ukrainian troops in the Russian region of Kursk.
In August last year, the Ukrainian army launched a surprise incursion into Kursk, seizing territory.
RHM/