Kiev has agreed to the American proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine. Moscow has declared that, in general, it supports a peaceful resolution of the conflict, but that the “fundamental causes of the war” must be eliminated. In the Kremlin's assessment, a ceasefire would currently be beneficial for Kiev.
US President Donald Trump said Sunday that he plans to speak with Russian leader Vladimir Putin next Tuesday, with Russia's war against Ukraine to be the topic.
“We want to see if we can end this war. Maybe we can, maybe we can't, but I think we have a very good chance of doing so,” Trump said. Asked what concessions were being considered, the president said: “We're going to talk about territory, we're going to talk about power plants. (…) I think we've discussed a lot with both sides, Ukraine and Russia. (…) We're talking, we're sharing some resources,” he said.
A week ago, on March 11, during talks with the US in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine expressed its readiness to accept the US proposal to implement an immediate 30-day ceasefire in airspace, sea and land. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared that Kyiv considers it a positive step.
The United States agreed to resume military aid to Ukraine and resume sharing intelligence with it. After the talks, it announced that it would present the proposal signed by Kiev and Washington to Russia and emphasized that the ball was currently in Moscow's court.
The Russian leader said on March 13 that his country supports the American proposal to end the conflict by peaceful means, but that many details must be agreed before a ceasefire can be agreed. Among other things, Russia does not agree to the presence of international peacekeeping forces in Ukraine. Putin stated that a 30-day ceasefire would be beneficial for Ukraine in the current circumstances. He also stressed that the “fundamental causes of the war” must be eliminated. Until now, the Kremlin, speaking about “causes” – which also justified the invasion of Ukraine – actually questioned the existence of a Ukrainian state independent of Russia.
In response, the Ukrainian president stressed that peace cannot be conditional and that Russia's opinion on the contingent of peacekeeping troops on Ukrainian soil cannot be taken into account.
US Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who met with Putin in Moscow on Thursday, said the fate of four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson – partially or fully occupied by Russia would be key to the agreement. He declined to say whether the US would recognize Russia's territorial gains.
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz also stressed that the issue of territory is an important topic of talks. “It will be some kind of deal – territory for future security guarantees,” the presidential advisor said.
Reuters noted that Ukraine's acceptance of the ceasefire forces Russia to yield to Trump's demands to stop the fighting and may test the US president's opinion of Putin.
According to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Defence Kai Kallas, the ceasefire terms presented by Russia show that the Kremlin does not really want peace.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in turn, said Putin had shown disregard for the ceasefire proposal. We cannot allow Putin to manipulate this agreement, he added, saying the Russian leader was “playing for time.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said that Russia “must accept the proposal for a 30-day ceasefire.” (PAP)
sun/ shm/
