Putin stops short of endorsing immediate Ukraine ceasefire

Bloomberg News on Mar 13, 2025

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said he wants to discuss a proposed ceasefire in Ukraine with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump, though he warned that any truce should lead to a long-term resolution of the war.

“The idea itself is correct and we certainly support it, but there are issues that we need to discuss,” Putin said at a Moscow news conference Thursday. “We need to talk to our American colleagues and partners about this, maybe call President Trump and discuss it with him, but we support the idea of ending this conflict by peaceful means.”

Despite the ambiguity in Putin’s comments, Trump took an optimistic view. “We’re getting word that things are going OK in Russia,” Trump told reporters at the White House during a visit by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. The president added, though, that “it doesn’t mean anything until we hear what the final outcome is” and that if Russia doesn’t sign on to the truce “that’ll be a very disappointing moment for the world.”

Trump said the United States has started discussing outlines of a final agreement with Ukraine, including land that might be kept or forfeited and which side would keep a large power plant. “It’s not an easy process,” Trump said. He didn’t elaborate on the disputed plant, but the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest — has been seized by Russian forces since early in the war.

Putin spoke ahead of talks Thursday with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, as the U.S. seeks to persuade the Russian leader to join the 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine said it’s ready to accept. The agreement hammered out at talks between top U.S. and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday has turned the spotlight onto Russia in efforts to halt the fighting and begin negotiations to end the more than three-year-long war.

“We agree with the proposals to stop hostilities, but we start from the position that this cessation should lead to a long-term peace and eliminate the causes of this crisis,” Putin said. “Then there arise questions over monitoring and verification” of any truce along an almost 2,000 kilometer-long (1,250-mile) front line, he said.

Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, said earlier Thursday that Russia wanted a long-term solution and not a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine, the Interfax news agency reported.

There were no plans for a phone conversation between Putin and Trump on Thursday, Ushakov said, according to the Tass news service.