Russian President Vladimir Putin refused Thursday to fully embrace a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in the Ukraine war, saying there are “nuances” that require “painstaking research,” especially since Russian forces are advancing in the war.
President Donald Trump, speaking in the Oval Office after Putin’s remarks, said the Russian leader “put out a very promising statement, but it was incomplete. And yeah, I’d love to meet with him or talk to him, but we have to get it over with fast.”
The Russian leader was due to meet Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday evening to discuss the ceasefire proposal, which earlier one of Putin’s top aides had dismissed as unworkable. Putin’s comments allow Russia to engage in protracted negotiations without immediately rejecting a truce.
Putin, who thanked Trump for his efforts to resolve the conflict, said Russia would agree to a ceasefire, but only if it led to long-term peace, hinting that Russia wanted to place conditions on a ceasefire, such as barring Ukraine from receiving arms from the United States or mobilizing new forces. He also questioned how a ceasefire would be verified, indicating that complex negotiations would be required before he could endorse it.
“The idea in itself is the right one, and we certainly support it, but there are issues that we need to discuss,” Putin said. “We should talk to our U.S. colleagues, maybe in a call with President Trump.”
Trump said the United States had discussed territorial and other issues that could be in a final deal.
“So a lot of the details of a final agreement have actually been discussed,” he said. “Now we’re going to see whether or not Russia’s there. And if they’re not, it’ll be a very disappointing moment for the world.”
Putin’s references to the complexity of reaching a ceasefire and the need for “painstaking research” would effectively delay the proposed immediate short-term ceasefire, allowing Russia to continue fighting as negotiations drag on. The remarks reflect his confidence in Russia’s position in the war, and his belief that Western military support to Kyiv will most probably dwindle under the Trump administration, which recently halted military aid and intelligence sharing temporarily.
Putin also talked about how Russian troops were advancing against the remaining Ukrainian forces in its southern Kursk region. “If we stop fighting for 30 days, what does that mean? That everyone who’s there will get out without a fight?”
He said agreeing on the next steps to end the conflict will depend “on how the situation develops on the ground,” in a clear reference to Russia’s ongoing military successes.
Putin on Wednesday sent a defiant military message with a rare appearance in a camouflage uniform to mark Russian advances against Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region. He urged his forces to fight on, evict Ukrainian forces from the Russian territory and drive forward to create a security zone on the border inside Ukraine.
Russian political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, called Putin’s rejection of an unconditional ceasefire “an uncomfortable stance that risks angering Trump and hindering the otherwise promising prospects of normalizing bilateral relations.”
Putin’s conditions for a ceasefire, including demands that the United States halt military supplies and that Kyiv not use the pause to strengthen its defenses, rearm or mobilize, are intended to secure Ukraine’s capitulation, Stanovaya wrote on X.
But Putin’s comments were softer than those of his aide Yuri Ushakov, who is on Russia’s negotiating team in talks with the United States over the Ukraine war. Ushakov told the state broadcaster that he had outlined Moscow’s opposition to a 30-day ceasefire to U.S. national security adviser Michael Waltz in a phone call.
“The proposed temporary ceasefire in Ukraine is nothing more than a reprieve for the Ukrainian military,” Ushakov said. “Russia seeks a long-term peace settlement on Ukraine that addresses Moscow’s interests and concerns. Steps that mimic peaceful actions are of no use to anyone.”
Putin has repeatedly opposed calls for a short-term ceasefire. In January, at a meeting of Russia’s Security Council, he said the goal of the settlement should be “not a short truce, not some kind of respite for regrouping forces and rearmament with the aim of subsequently continuing the conflict, but long-term peace.”
Trump envoy Witkoff arrived in Moscow on Thursday and was expected to meet with Putin to discuss the U.S. ceasefire proposal. Witkoff met Putin last month and negotiated a deal for the release of American schoolteacher Marc Fogel, setting the scene for the talks between Russia and the United States in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Istanbul. At the time, Witkoff said Trump’s friendship with Putin had enabled the negotiations and would continue to do so.
Putin’s talk of lengthy discussions over the terms of a ceasefire would probably mean that fighting will continue, and hundreds or thousands more lives could be lost — a prospect at odds with Trump’s stated desire for an end to the bloodshed.
It would also allow Russia to capture more territory and continue its slow advance in eastern Ukraine. It has been three years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who joined Putin at his briefing, said earlier that it would be difficult for Russia to agree to a ceasefire because it was advancing on the front line. “As Trump said, they hold high cards in their hands,” he said, adding that these could allow Russia to “start winning this card game. Then an agreement will be reached.”
Fighting continued in western Russia, where Ukraine’s seven-month-old occupation of a sliver of territory in the Kursk region appeared to be nearing an end. Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, told Putin on Wednesday that the operation to evict enemy forces was in its final stages.
With the Russian Defense Ministry announcing Thursday the recapture of Sudzha — the largest town once under Ukrainian control — Moscow looks set to strip Kyiv of a territorial bargaining chip it had hoped to use in peace talks brokered by the Trump administration.
A Ukrainian drone commander who has been fighting in Kursk since August said his brigade was “gradually withdrawing.” He said troops are holding on to parts of Sudzha to give other units time to withdraw.
“We will try to hold them at the Ukrainian border,” said Andriy, who asked that his last name not be used because he was not authorized to speak with the media. “I think the Russians will try to advance further and enter Sumy region. This is what we are fighting against right now.”
Ukraine’s army chief, Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, said Wednesday that combat operations were continuing in the Kursk region, even as the Russian offensive was pushing steadily forward. Syrsky said Russia had “almost completely destroyed” the town of Sudzha with aerial bombardment.
In the official video released Wednesday that the Kremlin said showed a uniformed Putin visiting a command point in the Kursk region, Putin ordered Gerasimov to drive Ukrainian forces from the region as quickly as possible and to “completely destroy the enemy.”
Putin’s appearance in uniform is a signal of determination to complete the operation to liberate the Kursk region in the very near future,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian media. Many pro-war nationalist military bloggers also took it as a sign that the Russian leader would press ahead with the war.
“The previous status along the border must be restored,” Putin said in the video. Any captured prisoners should be treated as terrorists, he added, fueling concerns about Russian treatment of prisoners after widespread allegations of Ukrainian POWs being tortured by Russian forces.
Putin also said Russia must send forces into Ukraine to create a “security zone,” in a sign he intends to drive forward ahead of proposed peace talks. In the past, Putin has called for a security corridor on Ukrainian territory — not on Russian-occupied land — as a condition of any peace agreement.
Ukraine’s August incursion and occupation of Russian territory shattered Putin’s oft-stated red line that attacks on Russian territory are unacceptable, and Russia was forced to deploy North Korean troops to the region in an effort to win back the territory.
Gerasimov said Kyiv “aimed to create a so-called strategic foothold in the Kursk region to use it later as a bargaining chip in the potential talks with Russia.”
He added: “The plan of our enemy has failed.”
Russia’s terms for a peace deal have so far remained sweeping and inflexible, including shutting Ukraine out of NATO, gaining recognition of Russia’s land grab as legitimate, and demilitarizing Ukraine, leaving it with a small army incapable of deterring future attacks.
Russia’s position so far appears to hew closely to the recommendations on negotiating tactics and approach by an influential Moscow-based think tank close to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), which set out Russia’s maximalist demands for any end to the conflict in Ukraine.
Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, on Thursday once more spelled out Russia’s maximalist conditions, in an indication that the peace negotiations will be difficult. He ruled out any chance of Russia ceding any of the land it has seized, insisting that it was Russian territory that could never be returned.
“Crimea, Sevastopol, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk — these are regions of Russia. They are written into the constitution. This is a given fact,” he said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Thursday also ruled out the presence of any foreign peacekeepers in Ukraine — a plan being mulled by European nations as a security guarantee for any future agreement.
“Russia does not accept the deployment of armed forces of other countries in Ukraine,” she said. “It would mean involvement in the conflict.” If this occurred, “Moscow will react with all means.”
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