By MYKOLAIV, Ukraine — Russia sees the temporary ceasefire suggested by the U.S. and Ukraine as little more than a chance for Kyiv’s forces to regroup, a senior aide to Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
Washington says it is waiting to hear Moscow’s reaction to the temporary 30-day ceasefire plan sketched out by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Ukrainian counterparts in Saudi Arabia this week. President Donald Trump has suggested he could hit Russia with sanctions if they reject the proposal.
On Thursday Putin’s foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov appeared to do just that, calling the outlined plan “nothing else than a temporary respite for the Ukrainian military, nothing more.”
He told Russian state media that the country’s “goal is still a long-term peaceful settlement… [that] takes into account the legitimate interests of our country.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin on a visit to the Kursk region Wednesday.Kremlin.ru / AFP via Getty Images
“Steps that imitate peaceful actions, it seems to me, are of no use to anyone,” he added, also saying that he conveyed that position to U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz in a phone call Wednesday.
Putin himself has made no suggestion he is prepared to soften his maximalist demands for ending a war in which Russia believes it has the upper hand. He wants Ukraine to withdraw from its regions partly occupied by Russia — essentially giving even more land to the Kremlin — while promising never to join NATO and protecting Russian culture and language inside the country.
Earlier Thursday, the Russian president urged his own soldiers to secure a quick and decisive victory while on a visit to the frontlines in the only Russian region where Ukrainian troops hold territory.
The former KGB agent dressed in military fatigues visited Kursk, the only region of Russia partly occupied by Russian troops. Soon after, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had recaptured the town of Sudzha, the largest settlement previously occupied by Ukrainian forces.
“Our task in the near future, in the shortest possible time frame, is to decisively defeat the enemy entrenched in the Kursk region,” Putin said. He also suggested creating “a security zone” on the border.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday in a media briefing that “there is no doubt that the Kursk region will be liberated soon enough.”
