Vladimir Putin just claimed that he does support a 30-day ceasefire in the Ukraine war – as long as the “root causes” of the conflict are addressed.
This is presumably an allusion to his baseless allegations the Kyiv is run by a neo-Nazi government, and that Ukraine is too close to the west.
But the Russian president has evidently overlooked the main “root cause” of the war – that he ordered the invasion back of his country’s neighbour in February 2022 in a land grab.
As the US tries to negotiate an end to the three year war, many of Ukraine’s other western allies have pointed out that the conflict could end the moment Putin withdraws his troops.
The Russian president responded to the US’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in the Ukraine war for the first time today, after Kyiv had already given the idea the green light.
He said the ceasefire should “lead to an enduring peace, and remove the root causes of this crisis”.
During a joint press conference with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, he suggested the ceasefire would have to be on his terms.
Putin claimed he would need to negotiate remaining issues “with our American colleagues and partners”, which could include “a phone call with President Trump”.
He also alleged that progress of the peace talks depends on success of his troops in Kursk, the one Russian region Ukraine has seized over the course of the war.
Putin said any ceasefire agreement is dependent “on how the situation on the ground will develop”.
His comments come despite US president Donald Trump urging Putin to back the deal last night, or face the economic consequences.
He said: “I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace.”
Putin has repeatedly claimed Russia was “provoked” into the conflict too, pointing to Nato’s expansion since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The Russian president’s non-committal response today came hours after his top foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov poured cold water on the ceasefire proposal.
Putin’s aide claimed it would be “nothing other than a temporary breather for Ukrainian troops”.
