RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has agreed to halt attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities temporarily but refused to support a complete 30-day ceasefire, which President Donald Trump had proposed as a first step to achieving a lasting peace.
In a statement released late Tuesday, the Kremlin said Putin voiced concerns that a temporary ceasefire could allow Ukraine to re-arm and mobilise more troops.
He also reaffirmed his demand that any resolution must include an end to all military and intelligence support for Ukraine.
The ICIR reported that Trump announced plans to discuss ending the war in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, March 18.
After a lengthy call between Trump and Putin, the White House announced that discussions on a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, a broader ceasefire, and a permanent peace agreement would begin immediately.
However, Trump told Fox News that aid to Ukraine did not come up in the conversation.
Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, later announced that the U.S. was set to hold talks with Putin in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, next Sunday but did not specify whether Ukraine would be invited.
“Up until recently, we really didn’t have consensus around these two aspects – the energy and infrastructure ceasefire and the Black Sea moratorium on firing – and today we got to that place, and I think it’s a relatively short distance to a full ceasefire from there,” Witkoff said on Fox News.
The Kremlin said Putin ordered the Russian military to stop attacks against energy sites after speaking with Trump.
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responding to the latest development, said that the Russian leader had effectively rejected the U.S. proposal, urging the international community to prevent Moscow from prolonging its war against Ukraine.
Zelensky, who had agreed to the 30-day ceasefire, said that he would support Putin’s limited ceasefire proposal after Tuesday’s call between Putin and Trump.
“Today, Putin de facto rejected the proposal for a complete ceasefire. It would be right for the world to reject in response any attempts by Putin to drag out the war,” Zelenskiy said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
The ICIR reported that Putin had said that fighting could not be stopped until several key conditions were addressed, despite his support for the US proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Putin said that any agreement must tackle what Moscow considered the root causes of the conflict, a key condition that indicates a ceasefire could take longer than Trump desires.
The Russian leader had said he wanted Ukraine to abandon its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ambitions. He also demanded that Russia have full control over the four Ukrainian regions it controlled in Ukraine, and for Ukraine’s military size to be restricted.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues.