Stay informed of free updates
Just register at War in Ukraine Myft Digest – Delivered directly in your reception box.
Russia does not want a temporary cease-fire in Ukraine and puts pressure on a long-term peace regulation which will take into account its interests and concerns, said a higher assistant to Vladimir Putin.
Yuri Ushakov, the Russian president’s foreign policy advisor, said on state television on Thursday that the 30-day ceasefire Proposed after the talks between the United States and Ukraine this week was “nothing other than a temporary break for Ukrainian troops”.
“No one needs steps that imitate peaceful actions in this situation,” said Ushakov, adding that Moscow “hopes [the US] Knows our position and wants to believe that they will take into account when we work together in the future ”.
RussiaThe rejection of the American proposal lined up on Putin’s hard position before the high-level talks later Thursday in Moscow, where Steve Witkoff, Special Envoy by US President Donald Trump in the Middle East, landed.
These requests would actually end UkraineExistence as a functional state and squarely places it on the orbit of Russia while seriously limiting the presence of NATO in the east of Germany.
Ushakov said Witkoff, who spoke to Putin last month when the United States began extraordinary attempts to bring together Russia, would not be the main envoy of the White House in Moscow.
The Russian advisor said Washington and Moscow had agreed that any future contact would be “of a closed nature” and refused to name the envoy.
He said he said to the American national security advisor Mike Waltz one day earlier that Russia’s goal was “a long -term peace agreement that took into account. . . Our well -known concerns ”.
Putin demanded that Ukraine recognize the Russian annexation of four partially occupied regions of the Southeast and the Crimean Peninsula, withdraw his troops from these areas and undertake never to join NATO as a prerequisite for the ceasefire.
Russia also put pressure for ceilings on Ukraine soldiers, protections for Russian speakers in the country and new elections to replace President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
He demanded an effective decline in expansion to the eastern NATO since the Cold War, which Putin said forced him to order his invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Although the Trump administration has excluded that Ukraine joins NATO and also said that it wanted Kyiv to have new elections, it threatened Russia with future sanctions if Putin does not make concessions.
However, negotiations arise as Russia progresses in the report of certain parts of the Kursk region that Ukraine seized in a surprise assault last summer and hoped to use as ephemeral.
Thursday, Valery Gerasimov, head of the staff of Russia, told Putin – who was carrying military fatigue for the first time since the start of the war – that their forces had captured 400 soldiers and recovered 86% of the territory taken by Kyiv.
The United States has restored military aid and intelligence in Ukraine earlier this week after senior officials had interviews in Saudi Arabia about Trump’s ceasefire proposal.
Trump then said that Moscow had to accept a break, warning that he could “do financially things that would be very bad for Russia”.
“I hope we can get a ceasefire from Russia,” said Trump after meeting Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin on Wednesday. “I have received positive messages, but a positive message means nothing. It is a very serious situation.
Additional reports from Felicia Schwartz to Washington
