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President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday did not rule out a U.S. and Ukrainian proposal for a monthlong cease-fire, but he set down numerous conditions that would most likely delay any truce \u2014 or could make one impossible to achieve.<\/p>\n
Mr. Putin\u2019s comments during a news conference highlighted the balance he was trying to strike, exuding confidence in Russia\u2019s position on the battlefield while seeking to continue talks with the United States and avoid upsetting President Trump. The U.S. president, having antagonized the country\u2019s allies and realigned American foreign policy in Russia\u2019s favor, has emerged as a key geopolitical partner for Mr. Putin<\/a>.<\/p>\n In sharp remarks later in the day, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said the Russian leader set so many conditions \u201cthat nothing will work out at all or that it will not work out for as long as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Putin\u2019s comments came before he was to meet with Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump\u2019s Middle East envoy, to discuss the cease-fire proposal that Ukraine had already agreed to. As of early Friday Moscow time, the Kremlin had not commented on how the meeting went. But the Kremlin said Mr. Putin had also spoken with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, about Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Putin\u2019s remarks came as Russia kept up its momentum in the key battle in the Kursk region<\/a> of Russia, where Moscow\u2019s forces appeared close to pushing Ukraine out of the territory it seized last summer. Such a development would reduce Kyiv\u2019s leverage in future peace talks.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea itself is the right one, and we definitely support it,\u201d Mr. Putin said, referring to the cease-fire proposal. \u201cBut there are questions that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to talk them through with our American colleagues and partners.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Putin suggested that his conditions would include limits to Ukraine\u2019s ability to mobilize more troops and import weaponry during a cease-fire \u2014 restrictions that would put Kyiv at a deeper disadvantage if the fighting restarted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Putin\u2019s comments were the first about the cease-fire offer that emerged from negotiations between the United States and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia<\/a> this week. They suggested that the Russian leader viewed that proposal as just a part of a broader negotiation between Washington and Moscow, and that he was eager to show that he was engaging with Mr. Trump\u2019s efforts to end the war that Mr. Putin began with his full-scale invasion three years ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Putin said he might \u201chave a call with President Trump and talk it over with him.\u201d When asked later on Thursday if he would speak with the Russian president, Mr. Trump said he would \u201clove to meet\u201d and talk with him.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d like to see a cease-fire from Russia,\u201d Mr. Trump told reporters while meeting with the NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump said the United States had discussed with Ukraine possible concessions as part of a peace agreement. \u201cWe\u2019ve been discussing with Ukraine land and pieces of land that would be kept and lost, and all of the other elements of a final agreement,\u201d Mr. Trump said, adding, \u201cA lot of the details of a final agreement have actually been discussed.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Putin appears keen to stay on Mr. Trump\u2019s good side, given the geopolitical victories that the U.S. president has already delivered for the Kremlin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But Mr. Putin\u2019s comments also showed that the Russian leader saw his forces as having the upper hand on the battlefield and that it would be to Russia\u2019s advantage to draw out the negotiations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He said on Thursday that Russia would continue to insist on a peace deal that addressed the \u201coriginal causes\u201d of the war \u2014 suggesting that his push for major Western concessions, such as a reduction of NATO\u2019s presence in Eastern Europe, hadn\u2019t changed, though it wasn\u2019t clear if he would make them a stipulation for a monthlong cease-fire.<\/p>\n Mr. Zelensky called Mr. Putin\u2019s response to the cease-fire proposal \u201cvery predictable, very manipulative.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPutin, of course, is afraid to tell President Trump directly that he wants to continue this war, wants to kill Ukrainians,\u201d he said in his evening address.<\/p>\n Mr. Putin was straightforward in declaring that a quick truce would be better for Ukraine than for Russia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIn these conditions, it seems to me that it would be very good for the Ukrainian side if there were a cease-fire, even for 30 days,\u201d Mr. Putin said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re in favor of it. But there are nuances.\u201d<\/p>\n He then listed those \u201cnuances,\u201d starting with the Ukrainian forces still in Kursk. He said that Russia would not allow those troops to peacefully withdraw and that the Ukrainian leadership could instead order them \u201cto simply surrender.\u201d<\/p>\n Ukraine stunned Russia in August with a cross-border incursion into Kursk, seizing several hundred square miles of territory. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But Russia\u2019s Defense Ministry said on Thursday that the country\u2019s military had regained full control of Sudzha, the main town in Kursk that Ukraine had seized<\/a>. Ukrainian officials have not confirmed a retreat from the town, where Wednesday night Kyiv\u2019s military reported fierce fighting. If confirmed, such a retreat would leave only small pockets of Russian land along the border under Ukrainian control.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Putin also suggested he might demand that Ukraine\u2019s Western allies halt arms deliveries, and said it was not clear how the cease-fire would be monitored along a front line of some 700 miles.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are all questions demanding very careful study,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While Mr. Putin\u2019s conditions may be impossible for Ukraine to accept, he did not repeat his onerous demand from last year that a cease-fire would depend on Ukraine\u2019s withdrawing from the four Ukrainian regions<\/a> that Russia had declared as its own but did not fully control.<\/p>\n Still, Dara Massicot, a Russian military specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which is based in Washington, called Mr. Putin\u2019s new demands \u201cvery dangerous for Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n In effect, she argued, Mr. Putin was pushing for a scenario in which the West would not be able to help Ukraine rebuild its armed forces while Russian factories pumped out new weaponry.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat Putin said today implies that the West cannot support Ukraine while Russia regenerates,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Reporting was contributed by Maria Varenikova from Kyiv, Ukraine; Marc Santora from Dnipro, Ukraine; Paul Sonne from Berlin; and Eric Schmitt from Washington.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n