Kremlin aide voices scepticism over proposed ceasefire ahead of Putin-Witkoff meeting

The 30-day ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv proposed by the United States would only “give the Ukrainians an opportunity to regroup”, an aide to Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

Yury Ushakov, who was part of the delegation representing Russia at talks with the United States in Riyadh last month, said that the temporary ceasefire would be “of no use” to Russia, adding that the proposal was “of a hasty nature” and would require further development to reflect Russia’s position as well as Ukraine’s.

Ushakov also told Russian state television that he had made the Kremlin’s position clear during a phone call with US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz on Wednesday, a day after the US-Ukraine talks in Jeddah, noting that Russia’s goal was a “long-term peaceful settlement” that took into account Russia’s “legitimate interests” and “known concerns”.

Putin, meanwhile, met with Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who arrived in Moscow on Thursday on his first official visit since his seventh re-election in January.

Referencing US President Donald Trump’s now infamous phrase to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Lukashenko described Russia as having “too many cards” as it continued to advance on the battlefield, adding that Moscow would find it “difficult to agree” to the ceasefire proposal as a result. He also accused Washington of having “no plan” for Ukraine, adding that it was merely “testing the waters”.

Russian daily newspaper Kommersant reported that Putin was likely to meet Donald Trump’s Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin on Thursday evening.

After talks with the US delegation on Tuesday, Kyiv signalled Ukraine’s willingness to observe a 30-day ceasefire agreement as long as Russia would do the same. While the proposal was met with near-universal outrage by Russian propagandists and war bloggers, it elicited a lukewarm response from Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday.

Experts quoted by Bloomberg said they believed that while Putin would eventually agree to a truce with Ukraine, in the meantime, he was likely to drag out the negotiations. “Putin won’t give a hard ‘yes’ or a hard ‘no,’” political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya told Bloomberg, noting that even if Putin made some gestures toward a ceasefire, “it would still be a temporary one and with very harsh conditions.”