President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that Russia supports in principle the US proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine, but that any truce would have to address the root causes of the conflict and that many key details must be resolved.
Putin's support for the US ceasefire proposal, accompanied by a number of restrictions, acts as a goodwill signal to Washington and opens the door to further negotiations with US President Donald Trump. Such talks could offer a real chance to end Europe's biggest conflict since World War II, given that Ukraine has already agreed to the proposal, Reuters estimates.
"We agree with the proposals for a cessation of hostilities," Putin told reporters at a news conference in the Kremlin after talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. "The idea itself is correct and we, of course, support it."
“But we proceed from the fact that this cessation of hostilities must be such as to lead to long-term peace and eliminate the root causes of this crisis,” he added. Putin then listed a number of issues that he said required further clarification and thanked Trump, who wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, for his efforts to end the war.
Putin said Russian forces were advancing along the entire front and that a ceasefire would have to ensure that Ukraine did not use the ceasefire to regroup. “How can we and how will we be sure that something like that will not happen? How will the control (of the ceasefire) be organized?” the Russian president said. “These are serious questions.” “There are things we need to talk about.” Putin said he might call Trump to discuss it.
Trump, who said he was ready to talk to the Russian leader, called Putin's statement "very promising" but also vague, expressing hope that Moscow would "do the right thing."
"I hope they do the right thing," Trump told reporters during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, providing a somewhat more detailed look at how the negotiations are going.
“We talked about... Ukrainian land and the parts of the territory that would be retained and lost, and all the other elements of the final agreement. That includes the power plant. You know, a very large power plant. Who gets the power plant, who gets this, who gets that? So, you know, it’s not an easy process. But the first phase is a ceasefire.”
Trump also said he did not believe Russia would attack US allies. "That's not going to happen. We're going to make sure it doesn't happen," he said.
Rutte stated that NATO is not doing enough in terms of weapons production and that Alliance members must increase production, as they are lagging behind Russia and China.
Ukraine, according to Reuters, will likely see Putin's stance as an attempt to buy time while Russian troops push out the last Ukrainian forces from western Russia, and Moscow sticks to its demands, which Kiev sees as an attempt to force it to capitulate.
European powers are deeply concerned that Trump could turn his back on Europe for some grand deal with Putin, which could include China, oil prices, cooperation in the Middle East, and Ukraine.
Putin said yesterday that Russia would welcome back Western companies if they wanted to return, although he added that markets have now been taken over by domestic producers and that Moscow will not create any special conditions for the return of Western firms.
"To those (companies) who want to return, we say: Welcome, welcome at any time," Putin said, using the English word "welcome."
He added that if Moscow and Washington could agree on energy cooperation, gas supplies to Europe could resume, after Russia lost its primary position as Europe's main supplier during the war.
Although he initially signaled his support for the ceasefire in theory, the Russian president raised a number of serious objections to the American proposal, including issues related to Kursk, monitoring of the ceasefire, and - perhaps most importantly - "eliminating the root causes of this crisis," as he sees them.
This very phrase will cause concern in many European capitals, not only in Kiev, given Putin's previous statements about what, according to him, "provoked" Russia - not only in Ukraine, but also more widely, the Guardian assesses.
Analysts believe he will have a series of maximalist demands before agreeing to any ceasefire, which is likely to prolong the negotiations. Putin, according to the Guardian, could also revive some of his demands from 2021 that go beyond the Ukraine issue, including a call for NATO to halt the deployment of weapons to member states that joined the alliance after 1997, when NATO began expanding to include former communist countries.
Many in Europe fear that these conditions for peace could weaken the West's ability to increase its military presence and allow Putin to expand his influence across the continent.
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