Putin Suggests US Ceasefire Idea for Ukraine Needs Serious Reworking 

13 March 2025, Russia, Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to welcome President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko during an official visit to Russia. (Kremlin/dpa)
13 March 2025, Russia, Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to welcome President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko during an official visit to Russia. (Kremlin/dpa)
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Putin Suggests US Ceasefire Idea for Ukraine Needs Serious Reworking 

13 March 2025, Russia, Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to welcome President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko during an official visit to Russia. (Kremlin/dpa)
13 March 2025, Russia, Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to welcome President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko during an official visit to Russia. (Kremlin/dpa)

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia supported a US proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine in principle, but that fighting could not be paused until a number of crucial conditions were worked out or clarified.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has left hundreds of thousands of dead and injured, displaced millions of people, reduced towns to rubble and triggered the sharpest confrontation for decades between Moscow and the West.

Putin's heavily qualified support for the US ceasefire proposal looked designed to signal goodwill to Washington and open the door to further talks with US President Donald Trump.

But Putin said any agreement must address what Moscow sees as the root causes of the conflict, a major caveat that suggests any ceasefire will take longer than Trump wants.

"We agree with the proposals to cease hostilities," Putin told reporters at the Kremlin. "The idea itself is correct, and we certainly support it."

"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."

Putin has said he wants Ukraine to drop its ambitions to join NATO, Russia to control the entirety of the four Ukrainian regions it has claimed as its own, and the size of the Ukrainian army to be limited.

He has also made clear he wants Western sanctions eased and a presidential election to be held in Ukraine, which Kyiv says is premature while martial law is in force.

Putin listed ceasefire-related issues that he said now needed clarifying and thanked Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, for his efforts to end the war. Both Moscow and Washington now cast the conflict as a deadly proxy war with the potential to trigger World War Three.

Trump, who said he was willing to talk to Putin by phone, called the statement "very promising" and said he hoped Moscow would "do the right thing".

Trump said Steve Witkoff, his special envoy, had held talks on Thursday with the Russians in Moscow on the US proposal, which Kyiv has already agreed to.

The US president said those discussions would show if Moscow was ready to make a deal.

"Now we're going to see whether or not Russia is there, and if they're not, it'll be a very disappointing moment for the world," he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he thought Putin was preparing to reject the proposal but was afraid to tell Trump.

"That's why in Moscow they are imposing upon the idea of a ceasefire these conditions - so that nothing happens at all, or so that it cannot happen for as long as possible," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

TERRITORIAL QUESTIONS

The West and Ukraine describe Russia's 2022 invasion as an imperial-style land grab, and have repeatedly vowed to defeat Russian forces, which control nearly a fifth of Ukraine's territory and have been edging forward since mid-2024.

Putin portrays the conflict as part of an existential battle with a declining and decadent West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 by enlarging the NATO military alliance and encroaching on what he considers Moscow's sphere of influence, including Ukraine.

European powers have been deeply concerned that Trump could be turning his back on Europe for some sort of grand bargain with Putin that could include China, oil prices, cooperation in the Middle East and Ukraine.

Putin said the ceasefire would have to ensure that Ukraine did not simply use it to regroup.

"How can we and how will we be guaranteed that nothing like this will happen? How will control (of the ceasefire) be organized?" Putin said. "These are all serious questions."

"There are issues that we need to discuss. And I think we need to talk to our American colleagues as well."

Putin said he might call Trump to discuss the issue.

Trump said his administration has been discussing what land Ukraine would keep or lose under any settlement, as well as the future of a large power plant.

He was most likely referring to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia facility in Ukraine, Europe's largest nuclear plant. The two sides have accused each other of risking an accident at the plant with their actions.

Any delay in agreeing a ceasefire could give Russia more time to push the last Ukrainian forces out of its western Kursk region.

Russia in recent days has pressed a lightning offensive in Kursk against Ukrainian forces, which entered last August in a bid to divert forces from eastern Ukraine, gain a bargaining chip and embarrass Putin.

The Russian leader wondered how a ceasefire would affect the situation in Kursk.

"If we stop hostilities for 30 days, what does that mean? That everyone who is there will leave without a fight?" he said.



Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Says There Is Now a Good Chance to End War

 Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks to Ukrainian Muslim service members before sharing an iftar with them, a meal to break their fast at sunset, during the holy month of Ramadan, in a mosque in Kyiv, Ukraine March 13, 2025. (Reuters)
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks to Ukrainian Muslim service members before sharing an iftar with them, a meal to break their fast at sunset, during the holy month of Ramadan, in a mosque in Kyiv, Ukraine March 13, 2025. (Reuters)
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Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Says There Is Now a Good Chance to End War

 Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks to Ukrainian Muslim service members before sharing an iftar with them, a meal to break their fast at sunset, during the holy month of Ramadan, in a mosque in Kyiv, Ukraine March 13, 2025. (Reuters)
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks to Ukrainian Muslim service members before sharing an iftar with them, a meal to break their fast at sunset, during the holy month of Ramadan, in a mosque in Kyiv, Ukraine March 13, 2025. (Reuters)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that he saw a good chance to end the war with Russia after Ukraine accepted a US proposal for a 30-day interim ceasefire and Moscow said it would only agree if certain conditions were met.

"Right now, we have a good chance to end this war quickly and secure peace. We have solid security understandings with our European partners," Zelenskiy said on X.

"We are now close to the first step in ending any war – silence," he said, referring to a truce.

Speaking to reporters, Zelenskiy urged the US and other allies to apply pressure on Moscow, reiterating his belief that Russian President Vladimir Putin will delay reaching a ceasefire as long as possible.

"If there is a strong response from the United States, they will not let them play around. And if there are steps that Russia is not afraid of, they will delay the process," Zelenskiy told media.

He said that the ceasefire along a more than 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) frontline could be controlled with US help via satellites and intelligence. Washington resumed intelligence sharing and military aid after US and Ukrainian officials met in Saudi Arabia this week and Ukraine accepted the ceasefire.

Zelenskiy also said that officials at that meeting discussed the issue of territory, but a difficult dialog would be required to resolve it.

"The issue of territories is the most difficult after the ceasefire," Zelenskiy said at a media briefing.

With the war is in its fourth year, Russian forces control nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory and they have steadily advanced in the eastern Donetsk region in recent months.

"The ceasefire unblocks the way for the sides to end the war. And the territories ... will be the point that makes it possible to end the war after this issue is resolved," the Ukrainian president said.

Moscow has demanded that Kyiv permanently cede territory claimed by Russia including Crimea and four other regions, a position Ukraine has rejected.

Zelenskiy said he was discussing with Kyiv's allies future security guarantees and also economic support, adding that 100% air defense cover would be required as deterrence in a peace deal.