Ukraine war: Russia’s Putin says ceasefire ‘questions’ linger amid Kyiv-US minerals deal talks
US President Donald Trump has voiced frustration at the slow pace of talks, telling NBC news in March that he was “p***ed off” with Russia’s Vladimir Putin
The Kremlin said on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin still supported the idea of a truce in Ukraine, but many unanswered questions remained about how it would work.
US President Donald Trump has been pushing for a speedy ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv since taking office, but his administration has failed to make a breakthrough despite talks with both sides.
“Putin does support the idea that a ceasefire is needed, but before that a whole range of questions have to be answered,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
“These questions are hanging in the air, so far no one has given an answer to them,” he added, blaming the lack of progress on “the Kyiv regime’s uncontrollability”.
Putin has said that any peace agreement must address what Moscow sees as the causes of the conflict: essentially a tug of war between Russia and the West over Ukraine’s future and the post-Soviet enlargement of Nato towards Russia’s borders.
Putin has said the ceasefire would have to ensure that Ukraine did not simply use it to regroup, and that key questions about verification of a truce would need to be clarified.