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Vladimir Putin has indicated Moscow is unwilling to drop its maximalist demands over any deal to halt the fighting in Ukraine, even as he said he “supports the idea” behind a US-backed 30 day ceasefire.
The Russian president said at a press conference on Thursday that any ceasefire must lead to a final settlement of the conflict that would “solve the root causes” of his invasion.
He added that Ukraine’s forces would otherwise be given a chance to retreat, regroup and re-arm just as Russia’s army is gaining the upper hand in the Kursk region, parts of which were captured by Kyiv last year.
“Does that mean Ukraine will use those 30 days to continue forced mobilisation, get weapons supplies and prepare its mobilised units?” the Russian president said.
Putin said Moscow also had concerns over how any ceasefire would be implemented and monitored.
“We will agree on how to end the conflict and find an acceptable agreement for everyone based on how the situation develops on the ground,” he said.
He expressed confidence that his forces’ “breakthroughs in Kursk” and elsewhere on the frontline would continue.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he hoped Russia would back Washington’s proposal, adding that his team was having “very serious discussions with Putin and others”.
Referring to remarks in which the Russian president said he would probably speak to his US counterpart, Trump added: “I’d love to meet with him and talk to him but we have to get it over with fast.”
Speaking at the Oval Office at the start of a meeting with Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, Trump said: “We are getting word things are going OK in Russia.”
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, is in Moscow ahead of expected talks with the Russian president over the war in Ukraine and normalising US-Russia relations.
Moscow’s previous demands would in effect end Ukraine’s existence as a functioning state and place it squarely in Russia’s orbit while severely limiting Nato’s presence east of Germany.
Putin has called for Ukraine to recognise Russia’s annexation of four partially occupied south-eastern regions and the Crimean peninsula, withdraw its troops from those areas and pledge to never join Nato as preconditions for the ceasefire.
Russia is also pushing for caps on Ukraine’s military, protections for Russian speakers in the country and fresh elections to replace President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
It has demanded an effective rollback of Nato’s eastward expansion since the cold war, which Putin has claimed forced him to order his invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Putin on Thursday also suggested the US and Russia were negotiating over securing gas supplies for Europe, following FT reporting that his close friend Matthias Warnig is engineering a restart of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Europe with the backing of US investors.
“If the US and Russia reach an agreement on energy, then the gas pipe for Europe will be secure. This will be useful for Europe because it will get cheap Russian gas,” he said.
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