Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he agrees in principle with a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, but the terms need to be worked out, and he emphasised that it should pave the way to lasting peace.
“So the idea itself is correct, and we certainly support it,” Putin told a news conference in Moscow. “But there are issues that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to discuss it with our American colleagues and partners.”
“It needs more detailed work.”
He noted the need to develop a mechanism to control possible breaches of the truce. Another issue, he said, is whether Ukraine could use the 30-day ceasefire to continue mobilisation and rearmament.
“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 without giving more details.
Read moreLive: Putin ‘in favour’ of a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine but says it must lead to ‘long-term peace’
The remarks come just hours after the arrival of US President Donald Trump’s envoy in Moscow for talks on the ceasefire that Ukraine has accepted.
The diplomatic effort coincided with a Russian claim that its troops have driven the Ukrainian army out of a key town in Russia’s Kursk border region, where Moscow has been trying for seven months to dislodge Ukrainian troops from their foothold.
Truce ‘good for Ukrainian side’
Putin said it appeared that the US persuaded Kyiv to accept the plan and that Ukraine is interested 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.
“In these conditions, I believe it would be good for the Ukrainian side to secure a ceasefire for at least 30 days,” he said.
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Referring to the Ukrainian troops in Kursk, he said: “Will all those who are there come out without a fight?”
Putin thanked US President Donald 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.
Russia has said it will not accept peacekeepers from any NATO members to monitor a prospective truce.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
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