Putin backs Trump’s push for Ukraine ceasefire in principle, but says “there are issues” to discuss with U.S.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he agrees in principle with a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, but that the terms need to be worked out, and he emphasized that it should pave the way to lasting peace.

“The idea itself is correct, and we certainly support it,” Putin said during a news conference in Moscow. 

“But there are issues that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to discuss it with our American colleagues and partners,” he said, adding that he could discuss those details in another phone conversation with President Trump. 

Putin noted that Ukrainian troops are encircled in their last foothold in Russia’s Kursk region, and said it would be necessary to determine before a ceasefire whether they will lay down weapons and surrender. He also noted the need to develop a mechanism to control possible breaches of the truce, though the Kremlin has repeatedly ruled out Western troops being deployed to Ukraine as peacekeepers.

“We agree with the proposals to halt the fighting, but we proceed from the assumption that the ceasefire should lead to lasting peace and remove the root causes of the crisis,” said Putin, who has always blamed the war and his full-scale invasion that sparked it on Ukraine.

He said that while the U.S. had apparently persuaded Ukraine to accept a ceasefire, Kyiv was interested in a truce because of the battlefield situation.

“In these conditions, I believe it would be good for the Ukrainian side to secure a ceasefire for at least 30 days,” he said.

Putin spoke hours after a senior U.S. envoy arrived in Moscow to discuss the U.S.-proposed 30-day ceasefire, and less than a day after he made a first visit to his commanders in Kursk, wearing military fatigues and promising the full recapture of the region.

On Wednesday, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News that Russian troops had made “significant gains” in Kursk over the past week. Russia has been maneuvering to surround the Ukrainian forces who launched a surprise incursion into Kursk months ago, and they have succeeded in doing so to the extent that the Ukrainians will likely soon have to decide whether to withdraw back into Ukraine, or be cut off from their supply lines, the American official told CBS News a day before Putin made essentially the same assertion.

The renewed Russian military push and Putin’s high-profile visit to his troops in Kursk came amid Mr. Trump’s push for a rapid diplomatic end to the war sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. The U.S. on Tuesday lifted its March 3 suspension of military aid and intelligence sharing for Kyiv after senior U.S. and Ukrainian officials made progress on how to stop the fighting during talks held in Saudi Arabia.

“It’s up to Russia now,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday, as his administration presses Moscow to agree to the ceasefire. The U.S. president has made veiled threats to hit Russia with new sanctions if it refuses to engage with his peace efforts, saying Wednesday that, “in a financial sense, we could do things very bad for Russia. It would be devastating for Russia. But I don’t want to do that because I want to see peace.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Mr. Trump’s special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, Steve Witkoff, was heading to Moscow for talks with Russian officials, possibly including Putin. His plane touched down in Moscow on Thursday morning, but his schedule was not revealed.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said after meeting Thursday with U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz, who was with Witkoff in Moscow, that the U.S. proposal for a one-month ceasefire failed to take into account Russia’s position, and would need reworking, according to Russian media.

“The document, it seems to me, has a hasty character,” Ushakov said, according to Russia’s state-run RIA news agency “It
will be necessary to work, think and take into account our position, too. It outlines only the Ukrainian approach.”   

The Kremlin has repeatedly ruled out accepting any agreement that sees Western forces deployed in Ukraine to help maintain a peace, something many European nations have said will be needed, though only Britain and France have suggested any willingness to do so.

By signaling its openness to a ceasefire, Ukraine has presented the Kremlin with a dilemma at a time when the Russian military has the upper hand in the war — whether to accept a truce and abandon hopes of making new gains, or reject the offer and risk derailing a cautious rapprochement with Washington.

The Ukrainian army’s foothold inside Russia has been under intense pressure for months from a renewed effort by Russian forces, backed by North Korean troops. Ukraine’s daring incursion last August led to the first occupation of Russian soil by foreign troops since World War II and embarrassed the Kremlin.

But given the recent Russian advances, Putin did not look like a man who was interested in ordering his forces to lay down their weapons on Wednesday as he visited troops in Kursk, wearing military fatigues and talking strategy with his commanders. He said he expected the military “to completely free the Kursk region from the enemy in the nearest future.”

Putin added that going forward, “it’s necessary to think about creating a security zone alongside the state border,” in a signal that Moscow could try to expand its territorial gains by capturing parts of Ukraine’s neighboring Sumy region. That idea could complicate a ceasefire deal.

Ukraine launched the summer raid into Kursk in a bid to counter the increasingly glum news from the front line, as well as to draw Russian troops away from the battlefield inside Ukraine and gain a bargaining chip in any peace talks. But the incursion failed to significantly change the dynamic of the war.

Ukraine’s top military head, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said late Wednesday that Russian aviation had carried out an unprecedented number of strikes on Kursk and that as a result Sudzha had been almost completely destroyed. He did not comment on whether Ukraine still controlled the settlement but said it was “maneuvering (troops) to more advantageous lines.”

Meanwhile, Major General Dmytro Krasylnykov, commander of Ukraine’s Northern Operational Command, which includes the Kursk region, was dismissed from his post, he told Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne on Wednesday. He told the outlet he was not given a reason for his dismissal, saying “I’m guessing, but I don’t want to talk about it yet.”

contributed to this report.