WP: Putin casts doubt on U.S. ceasefire proposal, sets tough conditions

President Donald Trump, speaking in the Oval Office after Putin’s remarks, said the Russian leader “put out a very promising statement, but it was incomplete. And yeah, I’d love to meet with him or talk to him, but we have to get it over with fast.” Putin’s comments allow Russia to engage in protracted negotiations without immediately rejecting a truce, writes ‘The Washington Post’.

Putin, who thanked Trump for his efforts to resolve the conflict, said Russia would agree to a ceasefire, but only if it led to long-term peace, hinting that Russia wanted to place conditions on a ceasefire, such as barring Ukraine from receiving arms from the United States or mobilizing new forces. He also questioned how a ceasefire would be verified, indicating that complex negotiations would be required before he could endorse it.

“The idea in itself is the right one, and we certainly support it, but there are issues that we need to discuss,” Putin said. “We should talk to our U.S. colleagues, maybe in a call with President Trump.”

Trump said the United States had discussed territorial and other issues that could be in a final deal.

Putin’s references to the complexity of reaching a ceasefire and the need for “painstaking research” would effectively delay the proposed immediate short-term ceasefire, allowing Russia to continue fighting as negotiations drag on. The remarks reflect his confidence in Russia’s position in the war, and his belief that Western military support to Kyiv will most probably dwindle under the Trump administration, which recently halted military aid and intelligence sharing temporarily.

Putin also talked about how Russian troops were advancing against the remaining Ukrainian forces in its southern Kursk region. “If we stop fighting for 30 days, what does that mean? That everyone who’s there will get out without a fight?”

He said agreeing on the next steps to end the conflict will depend “on how the situation develops on the ground,” in a clear reference to Russia’s ongoing military successes.

Putin has repeatedly opposed calls for a short-term ceasefire. In January, at a meeting of Russia’s Security Council, he said the goal of the settlement should be “not a short truce, not some kind of respite for regrouping forces and rearmament with the aim of subsequently continuing the conflict, but long-term peace.”

With the Russian Defense Ministry announcing Thursday the recapture of Sudzha — the largest town once under Ukrainian control — Moscow looks set to strip Kyiv of a territorial bargaining chip it had hoped to use in peace talks brokered by the Trump administration.

Putin on Wednesday sent a defiant military message with a rare appearance in a camouflage uniform to mark Russian advances against Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region. He urged his forces to fight on, evict Ukrainian forces from the Russian territory and drive forward to create a security zone on the border inside Ukraine.

In the official video released Wednesday that the Kremlin said showed a uniformed Putin visiting a command point in the Kursk region, Putin ordered Gerasimov to drive Ukrainian forces from the region as quickly as possible and to “completely destroy the enemy.”

Putin’s appearance in uniform is a signal of determination to complete the operation to liberate the Kursk region in the very near future,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian media. Many pro-war nationalist military bloggers also took it as a sign that the Russian leader would press ahead with the war.

Putin also said Russia must send forces into Ukraine to create a “security zone,” in a sign he intends to drive forward ahead of proposed peace talks. In the past, Putin has called for a security corridor on Ukrainian territory — not on Russian-occupied land — as a condition of any peace agreement.

Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, once more spelled out Russia’s maximalist conditions, in an indication that the peace negotiations will be difficult. He ruled out any chance of Russia ceding any of the land it has seized, insisting that it was Russian territory that could never be returned.

“Crimea, Sevastopol, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk — these are regions of Russia. They are written into the constitution. This is a given fact,” he said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Thursday also ruled out the presence of any foreign peacekeepers in Ukraine — a plan being mulled by European nations as a security guarantee for any future agreement.

“Russia does not accept the deployment of armed forces of other countries in Ukraine,” she said. “It would mean involvement in the conflict.” If this occurred, “Moscow will react with all means.”

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