By Guy Faulconbridge, Andrew Osborn and Vladimir Soldatkin
MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia agreed with U.S. proposals to stop fighting but said that any ceasefire should lead to a long-lasting peace and would have to deal with the root causes of the conflict.
“We agree with the proposals to cease hostilities,” Putin told reporters at a news conference in the Kremlin following talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
“But we proceed from the fact that this cessation should be such that it would lead to long-term peace and would eliminate the original causes of this crisis.”
Russian forces have been advancing since mid-2024 and control nearly a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, three years after sending tens of thousands of troops into its neighbour in a war that U.S. President Donald Trump has said he will halt.
Putin on Wednesday donned green camouflage uniform to visit a command post in the Kursk region of western Russia where Ukraine is set to lose its foothold after a major offensive by Russian forces.
(Reporting by Reuters in Moscow; editing by Michael Perry, Toby Chopra, Philippa Fletcher and Sharon Singleton)
