The Kremlin refused to immediately commit a 30-day ceasefire in the war with Ukraine, and Vladimir Putin said the US must explain first.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was waiting for “details” from Washington after meetings between senior Saudi American officials and Ukrainian officials.
“We assume that in the coming days, Secretary of State (Marko) Rubio and advisor (Michael) Waltz are informing us that they have reached negotiations and understanding that have happened through various channels,” Peskov told reporters in Moscow, adding that the Kremlin can organize calls between Putin and Donald Trump if necessary.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that the US will be in touch with Russia on Wednesday regarding its arrival on a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine.
“We are all eagerly eager to wait for the Russian response and urge them to consider ending all hostility,” Rubio said during a stop in Ireland. “If they say no, obviously we need to look into everything and understand where we stand in the world and what their true intentions are,” he added.
White House Middle Eastern envoy and closed Trump ally Steve Witkov are scheduled to travel to Moscow for talks with Russian leaders later this week, but the Kremlin has yet to confirm this.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said it plans to have further discussion with the US next week on the outline of the temporary 30-day ceasefire.
“At the technical expert level next week, the team has already agreed to begin discussions on all details,” Volody Mee Zelensky chief Andri Yermack urged him to lift restrictions on military aid and intelligence sharing after high-stakes talks in Jeddah.
Yermak added that the US will bring the proposal proposed to Russia now during consultations. “After this meeting, the key is now in Russia’s hands. And the whole world will see who really wants peace and who is talking about it,” he said.
It remains unclear whether Putin is ready to accept the ceasefire in its current form.
Some Moscow Russian officials are skeptical of the prospect of a ceasefire and said Moscow doesn’t want to stop the fight as this week’s forces earned rapid profits from recovering territory in Russia’s Kursk region.
“Russia is moving forward (on the battlefield)… it must be ours, not ours. Washington needs to understand this too,” Russian senator Konstantinkosachev wrote in the telegram. “The victory will be ours,” he added.
Parliamentary lawmaker Mikhail Sheremet told Russian media that Russia has no interest in continuing the war, while Moscow “cannot stand it violently.”
Other insiders said Russia would probably promote certain assurances before accepting a ceasefire.
On Wednesday, Fyodor Lukyanov, a prominent Russian foreign policy analyst who leads the council advising the Kremlin, wrote that the ceasefire agreement “contradicts” the repeated-statement position that no truce will take place until the basis for lasting peace is determined.
“In other words, we will fight until a comprehensive reconciliation framework is developed,” Lukanov concluded.
Putin repeatedly rejects the possibility of a temporary ceasefire, saying he is focusing on dealing with what he calls the “root cause” of the conflict.
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Earlier this year, he told the Russian Security Council “there should not be a kind of armistice, rather than a rest for force and reorganization, but rather a long-term peace aimed at continuing conflict afterwards.”
Instead, the Russian leader set up a list of the biggest demands to end Ukraine over NATO membership, including partially demilitarized and giving away full control of Putin, the four Ukrainian regions claimed in 2022.
In an interview with a group of US far-right bloggers this week, Russia’s longtime foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow would not accept Ukrainian western peacekeeping forces as security guarantees “under any conditions.”
Still, Putin’s complete rejection of a ceasefire risked angering Trump and damaging their warm relations, prompting the US administration to adopt a fundamentally different approach to Moscow compared to Europe.
Observers suggest that Moscow would likely recommend reclaim all territory controlled by Ukraine in the Kursk region of Russia or requesting withdrawal from the Ukrainian region before entering discussions about the ceasefire.
On Wednesday, Russian troops entered the central square of Skascha, the largest town in Kursk, which was captured by Ukraine last year. Moscow has been the most important breakthrough in efforts to regain control of the region since Kiev’s surprising invasion last year.
Ruslan Levieviv, founder of the Conflict Intelligence Team, an open source research arm, said Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region were undergoing a controlled withdrawal and appearing to be giving up their position without resisting.
“All regions are gradually being under Russian military control (and) little or no resistance is taken away. Mr Lebiev can say that the cities of the cities are already under Russian control,” Lebiev said.
Ukraine’s position in the Kursk region appears to be increasingly disastrous, but it has been able to stabilize the front in eastern Ukraine, where Russian attacks are largely stagnant.
