FT - Russia says it does not want a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine

Putin’s foreign policy adviser says Moscow wants long-term settlement taking its interests into account

Max Seddon in Berlin
Published 49 minutes ago Updated 07:48 am

Russia does not want a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine and is pushing for a long-term peace settlement that will take into account its interests and concerns, a senior aide to Vladimir Putin has said.

Yuri Ushakov, the Russian president’s foreign policy adviser, told state television on Thursday that the 30-day ceasefire proposed after talks between the US and Ukraine this week was “nothing other than a temporary breather for Ukrainian troops”.

Russia’s rejection of the US proposal aligned with Putin’s hardline stance ahead of high-level talks later on Thursday in Moscow, where a plane linked to Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, has landed.

Those demands would in effect end Ukraine’s existence as a functioning state and place it squarely in Russia’s orbit while severely limiting Nato’s presence east of Germany.

Ushakov said Witkoff, who spoke to Putin last month as the US began extraordinary attempts at a rapprochement with Russia, would not be the White House’s main envoy to Moscow.

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