Laura Gotzi and Paul Kirby
BBC News
Watch: Putin responds to our ceasefire proposal
Russia is ready to halt in battle, says Vladimir Putin, but says it has “nuanced.” These nuances he laid out prior to his meeting with US envoys in the Kremlin are very key to his idea that it can deprive hope of a 30-day ceasefire.
Those are the demands he had through serious Russian invasions. And for partners in Ukraine and its western states. Many of them intend to prove that they are unacceptable or impossible to fulfill.
“We agree with the suggestion to stop hostilities,” he began positively.
While no one opposes the need for long-term peace, Putin’s idea of the root cause of war revolves around Ukrainian desire to exist as a sovereign state, beyond Russia’s trajectory.
Ukraine wants to be part of NATO and the European Union.
While President Trump has already raised doubts about his NATO membership, Putin has repeatedly rejected the idea of Ukraine as a nation.
And it underpins many of the nuances he sketched.
He wants to stop Ukraine from reinforcing its troops and replenishing its weapons supply. Therefore, there is no more delivery from the west. He wants to know who it was verified.
From the beginning of this war, Putin called for the “demilitarization” of Ukraine. Ukraine is disgusting for Kiev and its allies.
Essentially, Putin is looking for an inverse security guarantee.
Will Russia agree to halt or mobilize its troops? It seemed incredible, and there were no hints of concession on his part as he addressed a Kremlin reporter.
Putin has just returned to a bullish atmosphere from the frontline of Kursk, a Russian border region that has been partially occupied by Ukraine since August last year.
Russia has the upper hand over Kursk. Putin clearly feels that he is negotiating from a strength standpoint and does not want to lose it.
“If you stop military action for 30 days, what does that mean? Will anyone there leave the battle?”
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced Thursday that Sudzha, the largest city managed to seize by the Ukrainians, has full control of the military. Putin says that all Ukrainians have left are wedges, so why is Russia stopped now?
“If there’s a physical lockdown in the next few days, no one can leave at all. There are only two options: surrender or die.”
The same was true at the 1,000km (620 miles) frontline, where he insisted that the situation on the ground was changing rapidly, and that the Russian army would “advance in virtually every region.”
Even if Russia has recently succeeded in the East, it is not because most fronts are in a deadlock.
Putin believes a 30-day ceasefire will take Russia’s advantages and allow Ukrainians to regroup and rescue them.
“What is our assurance that such a thing won’t happen?” he asked rhetorically.
There is no mechanism yet provided to ensure that the conditions of the ceasefire are retained.
Western countries have provisionally provided peacekeeping forces on a tentative basis, but will only come in the case of a final peace agreement rather than a ceasefire.
Russia doesn’t allow that arrangement anyway.
Given all these “nuances”, Putin appeared skeptical of how a ceasefire would benefit Russia, especially when his army was on his front legs. His entire outlook was “based on how the circumstances on earth develop.”
Putin met Trump envoys, particularly Steve Witkov, in Moscow late Thursday.
No matter what happens in those talks, Putin ultimately knows that his most important conversation is with the president.
“I think we need to talk to our American colleagues… maybe we’ll call President Trump and discuss this with him,” he said.
But Putin had set up his food stall before these conversations. The path to the ceasefire was a message that there were conditions scattered all around that were almost impossible to meet.
