MYKOLAIV, Ukraine — President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia was ready for a ceasefire but suggested Ukraine would need to accept further conditions before an agreement could be reached.
“We agree with the proposals to stop the hostilities,” Putin said at a news conference. While Russia would support a pause in the fighting, “there are issues that need to be discussed,” he said, adding that he may need to “have a phone call with Trump.”
In an apparent response to his statements, President Donald Trump said Thursday that Putin put out "a promising statement" but that he would like to see Russia agree to a ceasefire.
At a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, Trump said he hoped Russia would "do the right thing," adding that "serious discussions" with Putin and others are underway.
Asked whether he was willing to meet with Putin, Trump said, “I’d love to meet with him and talk to him.”
Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, arrived in Moscow on Thursday and is expected to meet with Putin.
Putin had expressed concern that the temporary ceasefire suggested by the United States and Ukraine would give Kyiv's forces an opportunity to regroup and questioned the mechanisms for preventing that during a potential ceasefire. Details like who would monitor and enforce the truce would also need to be considered, he said.
Putin has long held maximalist demands for ending a war in which Russia believes it has the upper hand. He has previously said he wants Ukraine to withdraw from its regions partly occupied by Russia — essentially giving even more land to the Kremlin — promise never to join NATO and protect Russian culture and language inside the country.
Earlier Thursday, he urged his soldiers to secure a quick and decisive victory on a visit to the front lines.
Putin's statement was Moscow's first public reaction to the temporary 30-day ceasefire plan Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Ukrainian counterparts sketched out in Saudi Arabia this week. Trump has suggested he could hit Russia with sanctions if it rejected the proposal.
Earlier Thursday, Putin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov called the outlined plan "nothing else than a temporary respite for the Ukrainian military, nothing more."
He told Russian state media that the "goal is still a long-term peaceful settlement ... [that] takes into account the legitimate interests of our country."
"Steps that imitate peaceful actions, it seems to me, are of no use to anyone," he added, saying that he conveyed that position to U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz in a phone call Wednesday.
