Donald Trump said he hopes that Russia will ‘do the right thing’ after Vladimir Putin rejected a US-backed proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine.
Although Putin said he was in ‘favor’ of the proposal during a press conference on Thursday, he added that Trump and the Americans needed to answer some ‘serious questions’ before he agrees.
Speaking later in the day, Trump said ‘we know where we are with Ukraine’ before confirming Russia hadn’t yet accepted the proposal.
‘At this moment we have people talking in Russia, we have representatives over there, Steve Witkoff and others. They’re in very serious discussions,’ Trump added.
Trump reiterated that he and the rest of his administration ‘want it to stop’ in reference to the three-year old war.
‘Hopefully they’ll do the right thing,’ Trump added, in a message to the Russians, saying Putin’s statement was ‘promising’ but ‘incomplete.’
Putin said that he would try to reach out to the president himself to see if they could get to a proposal that worked for his side.
‘I think we need to talk to our American colleagues… Maybe have a phone call with President Trump and discuss this with him,’ he told reporters.
Donald Trump said he hopes that Russia will ‘do the right thing’ after Vladimir Putin rejected a US-backed proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine
Putin said in a Thursday press conference that he was in ‘favor’ of the proposal but would not say yes to it unless Trump and the Americans could answer some ‘serious questions’
His problems with the deal include his inability to have a say over any possible betrayals by Ukraine and whether his adversaries in Kyiv would use the break to re-arm themselves and mobilize.
‘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,’ Putin said.
The Russian president added that any ceasefire must lead to ‘long-term peace’.
But this stands in opposition to comments made by his aide, Yuri Ushakov, who earlier said the proposed ceasefire deal was ‘hasty’ and would give breathing space to Ukrainian forces at a time when Moscow is close to fully retaking territory in its Kursk region from Kyiv’s forces.
Meanwhile, Russia is advancing across ‘practically’ entire front line, Putin claims, adding that he will determine the ‘next steps’ on the ceasefire based on the success of the Kursk campaign.
Putin said that Ukrainian soldiers tried to leave in large groups, but this is now impossible. If a physical blockade occurs in the coming days, then no one will be able to leave at all.
There will be only two options: surrender or die,’ he added, according to Russian media.
The Russian president noted that while it appeared that the US persuaded Ukraine to accept a ceasefire, Ukraine is interested in that because of the battlefield situation, noting that Ukrainian troops that launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk region would be fully blocked in the coming days.
Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine speaks to the press duringt a special European Union summit at the European headquarters in Brussels
‘In these conditions, I believe it would be good for the Ukrainian side to secure a ceasefire for at least 30 days,’ he said.
Referring to the Ukrainian troops in Kursk, he said: ‘Will all those who are there come out without a fight?’
Putin thanked Trump ‘for paying so much attention to the settlement in Ukraine.’
He also thanked the leaders of China, India, Brazil and South Africa for their ‘noble mission to end the fighting to casualties,’ a statement that signaled those countries’ potential involvement in a ceasefire deal.
Ushakov said during a live TV interview shortly before the Russian despot’s comments: ‘I have stated our position that this is nothing other than a temporary respite for the Ukrainian military, nothing more.’
The foreign policy advisor said Moscow sees its goal as being a long-term settlement ‘that takes into account the legitimate interests of our country and our known concerns,’ rather than a temporary truce.
‘It seems to me that no one needs any steps that (merely) imitate peaceful actions in this situation,’ he said dismissively.
Asked by TV host Olga Skabeeva – also known as Putin’s ‘Iron Doll’ – if this meant an outright rejection of the Trump ceasefire by Moscow, he replied ominously: ‘The President will probably [soon] make more specific and substantive assessments.’
The Russian president added that any ceasefire must lead to ‘long-term peace’
Putin thanked the leaders of China, India, Brazil and South Africa for their ‘noble mission to end the fighting to casualties,’ a statement that signaled those countries’ potential involvement in a ceasefire deal
Ushakov, who previously served as Moscow’s ambassador to the US, added that he had outlined Russia’s position on the ceasefire to US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.
The Russian Defense Ministry’s claim that it recaptured the town of Sudzha, a Ukrainian operational hub in Kursk, came hours after Putin visited his commanders in Kursk. The claim could not be independently verified. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment.
The renewed Russian military push and Putin’s high-profile visit to his troops unfolded as Trump seeks a diplomatic end to the war, which began more than three years ago with Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The US on Tuesday lifted its March 3 suspension of military aid for Kyiv after senior US and Ukrainian officials reported making progress on how to stop the fighting during talks in Saudi Arabia.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Thursday that Trump is ‘willing to apply maximum pressure on both sides,’ including sanctions that reach the highest scale on Russia.
But it appears that this pressure may not be effective, as an advisory document written for the Kremlin has revealed.
Vladimir Putin plans to fight on in Ukraine and weaken Donald Trump’s negotiating position in any peace deal by stoking tensions between the US and the rest of the world.
As Washington continues to push for a truce, documents from an influential Kremlin-linked thinktank, obtained by the Washington Post, suggest that Russia has been working to undermine a possible peace deal since at least February.
It appears that some measures in the document, reportedly written by an influential Moscow-based thinktank the week before the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia in late February, have already informed the thinking of the Russian state.
The document, written for the FSB’s Fifth Service, the security service division that oversees operations in Ukraine, lays out the ways in which Russia could boost its standing by inflaming tensions between the US and both China and the EU.
The US has twice sided with Russia at UN votes, in a stark reversal of Washington’s foreign policy which has worried allies.
The first instance was at the General assembly where it opposed a European-drafted resolution condemning Moscow’s actions and reaffirming Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
The second was at the Security Council where the US drafted and voted for a resolution that called for the end of Russia’s invasion without criticising Russia.
The pro-Kremlin thinktank’s document argues that against this backdrop, Russia should be working towards ‘the complete dismantling’ of the current Ukrainian government.
Putin has skirted the issue of a ceasefire ahead of talks with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff – whose plane was mapped heading to Moscow today – and has instead set his troops the task of grabbing back territory in Kursk.
