Donald Trump has said Vladimir Putin’s comments on the US ceasefire plan are „promising“ but incomplete – after the Russian president suggested there were „questions“ about the proposals.
false,Thursday 13 March 2025 20:03, UK
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The fear across Europe over Donald Trump being so keen to be the peacemaker is that he will do it at all costs, our US correspondent Mark Stone has said.
Stone explains that the fear is Trump could „accept a lot of Vladimir Putin’s demands that we don’t know the detail of“.
He said Trump has already proved that he has Ukraine „over a barrel“ after shutting off intelligence and weapons flows to the country to agree to a 30-day ceasefire without any firm security guarantees.
With Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow for talks with Putin, Stone added it is not inconceivable that Trump joins in the discussion via a phone call this evening.
Watch Stone’s analysis in the video below…
After hearing Vladimir Putin’s layered response to the ceasefire this afternoon, we have now had reaction from Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In his evening statement, the Ukrainian president describes Putin’s words as „very predictable“ and „very manipulative“ and says Russia’s president is preparing a rejection of the ceasefire proposal.
„Putin, of course, is afraid to say directly to President Trump that he wants to continue this war, he wants to kill Ukrainians,“ Zelenskyy says.
„That’s why they in Moscow are framing the idea of silence with such preconditions that nothing will happen at all or that it will not happen for as long as possible.“
He labels Putin’s words as „just another Russian manipulation“.
Zelenskyy continues by saying Ukraine does not „set conditions that complicate anything“ while stating that Russia does.
„As we have always said, the only one who will drag things out, the only one who will be unconstructive, is Russia,“ he says.
„They want a war. Putin has stolen years of peace and continues this war – day after day.“
Zelenskyy ends by calling for allies to ramp up the pressure on Putin and impose further sanctions.
We can bring you more from Vladimir Putin’s news conference earlier, and while much of the attention was on his comments around the ceasefire, he did also address the situation in Kursk.
It follows his visit to the region yesterday while dressed in camouflage after Russia’s military continued its advances on the front.
In his news conference, Putin said Russia had trapped the remaining Ukrainian soldiers in the western Kursk region, where they had clung on for more than seven months in one of the war’s key battles.
He said the troops were cut off inside the invasion zone, and issued a warning to the Ukrainian forces still in the area.
„If a physical blockade occurs in the coming days, then no one will be able to leave at all, there will only be two ways – to surrender or die,“ he said.
Ukraine’s incursion into the region last August came as a major surprise, and aimed to divert Russian forces from elsewhere on the frontlines while also taking land to trade for its own captured territory.
But with the support of troops from its ally North Korea, Russian forces have gradually been clawing back the lost ground, heightening the pressure on Ukraine.
You can watch the footage of Putin visiting Kursk in the video below…
Donald Trump has been hosting NATO’s secretary general at the White House – but with the world’s media assembled in the Oval Office, he took the opportunity to also discuss the ceasefire.
Trump has been increasing the pressure on Vladimir Putin to agree to the proposals, with his envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow for talks right now.
Watch what the US president had to say in the video below….
Vladimir Putin does not expect to give up regions of Ukraine as part of a peace deal, nor does he expect Volodymyr Zelenskyy to remain as Ukraine’s president, an expert has told Sky News.
Baroness Catherine Ashton, the former EU high representative for foreign affairs, said this afternoon’s news conference with Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, was „really interesting“.
She told our presenter Kamali Melbourne that Putin „says he supports the idea of a ceasefire“.
What follows, though, is a „whole series of details“.
These include: „Who monitors the ceasefire, how will we know when it’s being violated, what happens if it is, does it lead on to talks for peace, what does that look like, and who’s in the room?“
There is also the issue of Russia „making sure it’s in the best possible position“.
Such matters will lead to „very difficult conversations, I think, for the American envoy to have this evening“, Ashton commented.
The negotiation is being set up as „Russia and America decides“, she said.
Putin „expects that Zelenskyy won’t be there“ afterwards.
„He expects that he will not be returning parts of Ukraine to Ukraine.“
Our security and defence analyst Michael Clarke says Vladimir Putin’s response to the ceasefire comes as no surprise.
„This is the way the Russians always do things and they think they are doing very well in the war and are actually now in control of the diplomacy of this,“ he said.
Clarke explained that the main question is over how far Russia can push Donald Trump.
„The danger for Europe is that Trump will be so anxious for a deal that he will press the Ukrainians on all sorts of really important things,“ he said.
„The Americans have now demonstrated through the use of intelligence, turning it off and back on again, they know they have got a tap, they could turn up the pressure or turn down the pressure,“ Clarke said.
He added that this left Ukraine in a „very difficult“ situation.
As we’ve been reporting, Vladimir Putin has given his first response to the ceasefire, but his answer wasn’t exactly definitive.
While he said Russia agrees with the proposal, he indicated its position is based on the assumption that it would lead to „long-term peace“ and „something that would remove the initial reasons for the crisis“.
Watch what he had to say when asked about the ceasefire in the video below…
While it is perhaps more tangentially related to the war in Ukraine, Trump has given some new remarks on another recurring topic of his presidency – expressing confidence that the United States will annex Greenland.
„I think that will happen,“ he told reporters during the meeting in the Oval Office.
„I didn’t give it much thought before, but I’m sitting with a man that could be very instrumental [NATO chief Mark Rutte].
„You know, Mark, you need that for international security, not just security.
„It’s really a very appropriate question, thank you.“
Greenland’s pro-business opposition Demokraatit party, which wants a slow approach to independence from Denmark, won Tuesday’s parliamentary election. Trump said that election was good for the US – although his latest comments are unlikely to go down well in Denmark, which has repeatedly said Greenland is not for sale.
By Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent
Vladimir Putin was never going to flat out reject the US proposal for a ceasefire, but he also wasn’t going to fully endorse it either. Russia’s agreement, as expected, comes with several strings attached.
The Kremlin leader didn’t specify Moscow’s demands but he did allude to them by saying that any peace deal had to eliminate the „root causes“ of the conflict.
It’s become a frequent refrain of his, and shows that Moscow’s maximalist position hasn’t changed. By „root causes“, the Russian president is referring to NATO’s eastward expansion, which he blames as the catalyst for the war in Ukraine.
It’s a very clear indication that his agreement to a ceasefire relies on getting some kind of security guarantees of his own, eg a promise that Ukraine will never join NATO, or that there’ll never be any European peacekeeping forces from NATO members based in the country in the future.
He also articulated why Moscow is reluctant to agree to an immediate truce, talking at length about his forces‘ advances in the Kursk region.
Ukraine’s incursion there has been humiliating for the Kremlin, but their expulsion is finally within reach. Vladimir Putin doesn’t want that opportunity to slip away. By pausing Russia’s offensive, he fears they’ll lose the advantage and give the enemy time to regroup.
Vladimir Putin was, however, careful to thank Donald Trump for his efforts in trying to reach a peace agreement, perhaps wary of any backlash from the White House. But despite that, he still doesn’t appear to be showing any sign of compromise.
So in many ways, it feels like nothing has changed.
We are now seeing some comments from Donald Trump in his news conference with Mark Rutte that indicate a potentially significant change of tone on NATO.
As mentioned in our previous post, the US president has praised NATO’s secretary general for doing „some really good work“, and has also told reporters NATO „is stepping up“.
Both before and since his election, Trump has repeatedly criticised NATO countries for not meeting the current member goal of spending 2% of their GDP on defence – and said they should pay even more.
He has argued that the disparity is unfair and puts a burden on the US.
While his recent public pronouncements on the alliance have been heavily critical, leaders of fellow member countries will be hopeful his remarks today represent a shift in the White House’s stance.
Trump also told reporters that he noticed „very few people were paying“ when he first went to NATO, adding that if they were, they were not paying their „fair share“.
He says he was able to raise „hundreds of billions of dollars… the money started pouring in“ and claims the alliance became much stronger because of his actions.
Meanwhile, Rutte has urged NATO to produce more weapons, stating the alliance is not doing enough and is lagging behind Russia and China.
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Ukraine war latest: Trump says Putin remarks 'promising' but not complete – as Russian leader says 'lots of questions' about ceasefire plan – Sky News
