President Vladimir Putin said today that Russia agrees with US proposals for a ceasefire in Ukraine, but that any ceasefire must address the underlying causes of the conflict and that many details need to be clarified, Reuters news agency reports.
In 2022, Putin sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine, sparking the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.
"We agree with the proposals for a cessation of hostilities," Putin told reporters at a press conference in the Kremlin after talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
"But we assume that this break should be such as to lead to long-term peace and eliminate the root causes of this crisis."
Russian forces have been advancing since mid-2024 and now control almost a fifth of Ukrainian territory, three years after the start of a war that US President Donald Trump said he would stop.
Trump said at the White House on Wednesday that he hoped the Kremlin would accept a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, which Ukraine has said it would support, to end what he called the "bloodshed".
Putin thanked Trump for his efforts to end the war.
"The idea itself is correct and we, of course, support it," Putin said. "But there are issues that we need to discuss. And I think we need to discuss them with our American colleagues as well."
Putin said he might invite Trump to discuss the issue. "We support the idea of ending this conflict peacefully."
Putin on Wednesday donned a green camouflage uniform and visited a command post in the Kursk region in western Russia, where Ukraine could lose its foothold after a major offensive by Russian forces.
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