Putin Backs US’s 30-Day Ukraine Ceasefire Proposal, Russia Lays Out Demands For Talks With US On Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy aide said on Thursday that he had told Washington that a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the United States to pause the war in Ukraine would simply give Kyiv’s forces a much-needed battlefield respite. “We agree with the proposals to cease hostilities,” Putin said at a news conference in the Kremlin after talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

But we proceed from the fact that this cessation should be such that it would lead to long-term peace and would eliminate the original causes of this crisis, he was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters in its report. Yuri Ushakov, a former ambassador to Washington who speaks for Putin on major foreign policy issues, told state television that he had spoken to Waltz on Wednesday to outline Russia’s position on the ceasefire.

I stated our position that this is nothing other than a temporary respite for the Ukrainian military, nothing more, Ushakov was quoted by news agency as saying. Our goal is a long-term peaceful settlement that takes into account the legitimate interests of our country and our well-known concerns. It seems to me that no one needs any steps that (merely) imitate peaceful actions in this situation he asserted.

Moscow’s advances along the front in recent months and US President Donald Trump’s attempt to strike a peace deal to end the three-year-old conflict in Ukraine have raised fears that Kyiv, which was backed by the West, could lose the war.