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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday placed burdensome conditions on American proposals to end the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, which threaten to stall progress toward any deal.
“We agree with the proposals to stop military actions, but we proceed from the fact that this cessation should be such that it would lead to long-term peace and eliminate the root causes of the crisis,” the head of state noted.
Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 in a bid to conquer his southern neighbor and oust its leadership, which he has long accused of being run by Nazis.
Those “root causes” — which include Moscow’s opposition to Ukraine’s NATO integration and Kyiv’s Western political orientation— risk being a critical stumbling block to the chances of a successful peace deal being reached.
The Russian leader will huddle with U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff in a closed-door meeting at the Kremlin on Thursday night.
Putin was speaking at a press conference alongside Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during which he added that the Ukrainian fighters who invaded Russia’s Kursk region last summer “have completely abandoned their equipment, as there will be a physical blockade of the region — they either die or surrender to leave the region.”
“I am for it [the ceasefire]. But if we stop here in Kursk for 30 days, it would mean that the Ukrainian military would have several opportunities,” Putin added, outlining a series of questions he had.
“How will they use these 30 days? To supply weapons? For forced mobilization? For training? How can we be sure that none of this will happen in the future? Who will give the orders to ceasefire? What is the value of those orders? Who will decide? Who and where will violate this agreement?” he said.
According to Putin, “all these questions need to be thoroughly studied in the near future.”
“I think we need to discuss this with our American partners, maybe we need to have a phone conversation with [U.S.] President Trump. But we support ending this conflict in a peaceful way,” he said.
Russia is still failing in its core strategic goals for which they have suffered estimated losses of more than 170,000 men. Putin wanted a short war to oust Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, take Kyiv, thwart Ukraine’s gravitation toward the EU and NATO, and undermine it as a democracy.
Talks have intensified in recent days as Trump’s team seeks to quell the fighting in Ukraine: Earlier this week, American negotiators met with Kyiv’s leadership in Saudi Arabia to hammer out a ceasefire proposal that the Ukrainian side could get on board with.
But Putin’s comments at the press conference are in line with expectations of people who’ve worked with the Kremlin. Former Russian diplomat Boris Bondarev told POLITICO that Putin “has no interest in a ceasefire.”
“He thinks he can achieve his goals through fighting. I think he feels quite confident,” said Bondarev, who worked for Russia’s permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva, adding that the Russian leader is likely calculating that “Trump is much more concerned about a peace deal than about Ukraine.”
This story has been updated.
