Truce Holdups

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed interest on Thursday in a U.S.-proposed cease-fire deal with Ukraine. “We agree with the proposals to cease hostilities,” Putin said after a meeting with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, a close ally. “But we proceed from the fact that this cessation should be such that it would lead to long-term peace and would eliminate the original causes of this crisis.”

Under the proposed agreement, both Russia and Ukraine would enact a 30-day truce and immediately enter peace talks. Humanitarian relief efforts would be discussed during this time, and both sides would prioritize the release of civilian detainees, the exchange of prisoners, and the return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children. Kyiv agreed to enact the deal on Tuesday during a high-level meeting with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia—but only if Moscow agrees to do the same.

“The ball is now in [Russia]’s court,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the time, adding that if the Kremlin says no, “then we’ll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here.”

But on Thursday, Putin said “there are issues that need to be discussed” before he could sign off on a 30-day truce. These include whether Ukraine can receive arms and personnel during this time, what happens to Ukrainian troops in the Russian region of Kursk, and who should monitor possible violations at the front. Putin added that he may need to “have a phone call with [U.S. President Donald] Trump” to sort out the details.

Putin’s comments came shortly before he was due to meet with the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who traveled to Moscow on Thursday to try to persuade the Kremlin to accept the deal. And Trump said Putin’s latest comments were “very promising” but not “complete,” adding that he would “love to meet with him or talk to him.”

But recent Russian battlefield advancements—just days after the United States agreed to lift its suspension on military aid deliveries and intelligence-sharing to Kyiv—could hinder the White House’s progress.

Russian troops claimed on Thursday to have driven Ukrainian forces out of Sudzha, the largest town in the occupied Kursk region; Ukrainian soldiers first pushed into Kursk last August in a surprise offensive meant to destabilize Moscow’s territorial ambitions. “Your task is to completely destroy the enemy, which has entrenched itself in the Kursk region and is still conducting warfare here, and fully liberate the Kursk region’s territory within the shortest possible time,” Putin said on Wednesday during a visit to the front.

According to Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, some senior Kremlin officials believe that the U.S. truce proposal is “nothing but a temporary respite for the Ukrainian military, nothing else.”

Meanwhile, Kyiv and its European allies remain wary of any truce deal that does not come with U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine, something both Putin and Trump have pushed back against. This week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believes that Washington would take “strong steps” to pressure Moscow if it did not accept the cease-fire. “I don’t know the details yet, but we are talking about sanctions and strengthening Ukraine,” Zelensky told reporters.