Steve Witkoff has arrived in the Russian capital to discuss the results of US-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Moscow, Russia, March 13, 2025. © Kristina Kormilitsyna / RIA Novosti
Moscow is in favor of a ceasefire in the Ukraine conflict, but questions will need to be ironed out in future talks with the US, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, arrived for high-end talks in Moscow on Thursday. According to Putin’s top foreign policy aide, the US diplomat will meet with the president later this evening.
Witkoff’s arrival in the Russian capital comes after representatives from the US and Ukraine held talks on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, where they issued a joint statement proposing a 30-day ceasefire with Moscow.
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13 March 2025
18:50 GMT
Strengthening the Armed Forces of Ukraine as part of security guarantees for Kiev is dangerous, as its army is under the influence of “extremist elements,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Thursday.
“Europe cannot be guaranteed against manifestations of extremism and aggression as long as these extremist nationalist elements are in power,” he said.
If these forces are in control of “a strong Ukrainian army, then what kind of stability and predictability will there be in Europe?” the spokesperson said.
- 18:47 GMT
Kiev will not agree to a frozen conflict, Vladimir Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, said in a statement on Thursday.
”We will never agree to a frozen conflict,” he stressed, adding that the position aligns with the US.
Washington also doesn’t want a repeat of the failed 2014-2015 Minsk Agreements, Yermak claimed.
The Minsk agreements signed in 2015 were supposed to stop the fighting between Kiev and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. Germany and France were guarantors of the failed accords but later admitted that they only signed them to buy Kiev time to build up its military.
- 18:02 GMT
Washington has been discussing land concessions with Ukraine in the ceasefire talks, Trump has said.
“We’ve been discussing land with Ukraine, pieces of land that would be kept and lost,” he said, adding that the ownership of “a very big power plant” was part of the negotiations.
The proposed ceasefire is just the first phase of the negotiations, Trump stated.
- 17:46 GMT
Putin’s comment about Russia’s readiness to discuss a ceasefire was promising but “it wasn’t complete,” US President Donald Trump said on Thursday during a bilateral press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Witkoff and other US representatives are in Russia to discuss the proposed truce, among other things, he said.
“They’re in very serious discussions,” Trump stressed.
The Ukraine conflict is a big financial burden for the US and others, he said.
“We want it to stop. It’s also a tremendous cost to the United States and to other countries,” Trump said.
- 16:32 GMT
Russia supports the idea of ending the hostilities in the Ukraine conflict, but needs any potential ceasefire to facilitate a long-term peace, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
Speaking during a bilateral meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko Putin noted “We agree with the proposals to cease hostilities. But… this cessation must be such that it would lead to long-term peace and eliminate the initial causes of this crisis.”
Moscow has a number of questions about the US ceasefire proposal that will need to be raised in upcoming talks, Putin explained.
“I think that we need to discuss this with our American colleagues and partners,” he said.
“Maybe we could discuss this with President Trump over the telephone,” the Russian leader added.
Notwithstanding, Russia supports the idea of diplomatically ending the conflict, he said.
- 16:06 GMT
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow is in favor of a ceasefire, but has numerous questions about its practical implementation.
The Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk Region are cut off, and it would be unclear what is to be done with them in the event of a truce, he said.
”Are we supposed to let them out, after they committed mass war crimes against civilians? The Ukrainian leadership could tell them to lay down their arms, and just surrender,” the Russian president said.
It is also unclear how the ceasefire would be monitored and enforced, he added.
- 15:24 GMT
It is unclear how amenable the US is to Russian demands about demilitarizing and denazifying Ukraine, Yevgeny Primakov, the head of the Russian agency for international cooperation, Rossotrudnichestvo, has said.
”Under any circumstances, Ukraine must not pose a threat to Russia,” he said.
”This means we must prevent any risks of revanchism, which logically entails that Ukraine should not maintain offensive military capabilities or embrace an aggressive Nazi ideology aimed against Russia,” Primakov stressed. This would entail dismantling several social and political institutions active in Ukraine, as well as reforming its education system, he added.
It is unclear how willing the US is to consider these issues, Primakov said.
- 15:20 GMT
Russian President Vladimir Putin is not expected to hold a telephone conversation with Trump on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told reporters.
FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump. © Kremlin Press Office / Handout / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
- 15:09 GMT
Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Witkoff behind closed doors this evening, presidential aide Yury Ushakov has told Izvestia.
- 14:47 GMT
Russian political analyst Sergey Markov has warned that any ceasefire in Ukraine will be exploited by the West to rearm Kiev’s “political regime,” ramp up its conscription drive, as well as strengthen its repressive and anti-Russian nature.
Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin has said Trump is not ready to “unilaterally” withdraw from the Ukraine conflict, and “risks getting increasingly bogged down,” despite the US president’s apparent eagerness to wind down hostilities.
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