Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed in principle to the 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, although the exact details would have to be brokered with the United States.
“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.”
The announcement comes days after Ukraine offered a temporary truce at the urging of the United States. In February, the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia entered its 4th year, and President Donald Trump has made ending the conflict a priority of his administration.
Ukraine has been vocally skeptical of any deal with Putin, pointing to his history of reneging on previous agreements. For example, the 2014 Minsk Accords, which France and Germany negotiated to end hostilities in the Donbas region, an area in eastern Ukraine with a large Russian-speaking population that rebelled against the Ukrainian government after a pro-EU revolution ousted the previous Russian-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February of that year.
This skepticism led to a brief but very public falling out with the United States after a contentious joint press conference saw Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelenskyy ejected from the Oval Office without signing a pre-negotiated minerals deal with the United States. The rift, and the subsequent suspension of American military aid and intelligence sharing, appears to have mended on Tuesday.
“Now is the time to begin a process toward lasting peace,” a joint statement by American and Ukrainian diplomats read. “The United States will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace.”
The United States has applied considerable pressure on the Ukrainians to get them to the negotiating table. It has significant leverage over the embattled nation as its primary military supplier. Still, the Trump administration recently signaled that a similar pressure campaign could be used against Russia if they refused to accept the deal.
On Wednesday, Trump said peace was “up to Russia now” and hinted that he might ramp up economic sanctions against Russia if Putin did not accept the offered ceasefire.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent clarified this stance on Thursday in an interview with CNBC, stating that America was “willing to apply maximum pressure on both sides” with sanctions of ‘the highest scale’ on Russia.
Many observers have argued that Russia has little incentive to accept the ceasefire at the moment, as their forces are currently advancing across much of the Ukrainian front, and a 30-day pause could allow the Ukrainian troops to retrench and recuperate, thus breaking their current momentum.
“A 30-day temporary ceasefire. Well, what does it give us? It gives us nothing. It only gives the Ukrainians an opportunity to regroup, gain strength and, to continue the same thing,” Yuri Ushakov told Russian media.
Others have made the opposite case – that Russia may use the pause to rearm and recuperate before a renewed offensive.
However, some have argued that the glacial pace of the advance, the heavy cost of each square mile, and the economic benefits of loosened sanctions could incentivize Russia to accept a deal.
Meanwhile, Russia has made considerable gains in Kursk, a Russian territory that was invaded by Ukraine roughly 7 months ago and has been slowly taken back. On Wednesday, Putin told Russian media that he expected Russian forces “to completely free the Kursk region from the enemy in the nearest future.”
The announcement by the Russian President came hours after American Special Envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow on Thursday to continue peace negotiations.
