Putin backs US’ 30-day truce proposal, but wants sticking issues addressed first

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia agreed with US proposals for a ceasefire in Ukraine but that any ceasefire would have to deal with the root causes of the conflict and that many details needed to be sorted out.

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Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022, triggering the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War. “We agree with the proposals to cease hostilities,” Putin told reporters in the Kremlin following talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. “But we proceed from the fact that this cessation should be such that it would lead to long-term peace and would eliminate the original causes of this crisis.”

Russian forces have been advancing since mid-2024 and control nearly a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, three years into a war that US President Donald Trump has said he will halt. Trump had said in the White House on Wednesday that he hoped the Kremlin would agree to the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine said it would support to end what Trump called the “bloodbath”. Putin thanked Trump for his efforts to end the war.