Putin supports Ukraine conflict ceasefire as US envoy visits Moscow
Steve Witkoff has arrived in the Russian capital to discuss the results of US-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia Russian President Vladimir Putin, Moscow, Russia, March 13, 2025. © Kristina Kormilitsyna / RIA Novosti Moscow is in favor of a ceasefire in the Ukraine conflict, but questions will need to be ironed out in future talks with the US, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, arrived for high-end talks in Moscow on Thursday. According to Putin’s top foreign policy aide, the US diplomat will meet with the president later this evening. Witkoff’s arrival in the Russian capital comes after representatives from the US and Ukraine held talks on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, where they issued a joint statement proposing a 30-day ceasefire with Moscow.
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13 March 2025
21:15 GMT
Trump could still ramp up sanctions on Moscow to pressure it into accepting the US ceasefire deal, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC News in an interview on Thursday.
When asked if there were further financial measures that Washington could take, Bessent said the Trump administration would not hesitate to nearly double sanctions pressure on Russia, compared to the restrictions imposed under former US President Joe Biden.
”If we just take a kind of a scale zero to 10… the Biden administration sanctions on Russia were probably a three, on the way out of the door they took them to a 6,” he replied.
”We wouldn’t hesitate to take them up to 10,” Bessent said.
- 21:05 GMT
Moscow wants Trump’s special envoy on the Ukraine conflict, Keith Kellogg excluded from the ceasefire talks, NBC News wrote on Thursday, citing anonymous US and Russian officials.
Kellogg was absent from both the high-level US-Russian negotiations in Riyadh, and later US-Ukrainian talks in Jeddah.
”Kellogg is a former American general, too close to Ukraine. Not our kind of person, not of the caliber we are looking for,” a Russian official reportedly told NBC news, speaking anonymously.
A US official confirmed that the Kremlin did not want the former general involved.
The Trump administration sent US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff as part of Washington’s delegation to this week’s ceasefire talks in Moscow.
- 20:35 GMT
The Trump administration has allowed a general license permitting European countries to buy Russian oil and gas to lapse, as leverage in ongoing talks, Fox News White House correspondent Edward Lawrence has said, citing an anonymous official.
The exception expired on Wednesday, according to the copy made publicly available by the US Treasury.
The license allowed European states to buy oil and gas from Russia and pay through Russian financial institutions without facing US sanctions.
Washington is using the intentional lapse to put pressure on Moscow in the ceasefire negotiations, Lawrence wrote, citing the anonymous source.
- 19:54 GMT
US President Donald Trump has brushed aside suggestions that Russia could attack American allies in Europe.
He made the statement at a press conference alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, when asked about some countries’ fears of being attacked in the event of peace in the Ukraine conflict.
”Nope, I don’t see that happening,” he replied.
”I think when this gets done, it’s done. They’re going to all want to go home and rest,” he said.
- 18:50 GMT
Strengthening the Armed Forces of Ukraine as part of security guarantees for Kiev is dangerous, as its army is under the influence of “extremist elements,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Thursday.
“Europe cannot be guaranteed against manifestations of extremism and aggression as long as these extremist nationalist elements are in power,” he said.
If these forces are in control of “a strong Ukrainian army, then what kind of stability and predictability will there be in Europe?” the spokesperson said.
- 18:47 GMT
Kiev will not agree to a frozen conflict, Vladimir Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, said in a statement on Thursday.
”We will never agree to a frozen conflict,” he stressed, adding that the position aligns with the US.
Washington also doesn’t want a repeat of the failed 2014-2015 Minsk Agreements, Yermak claimed.
The Minsk agreements signed in 2015 were supposed to stop the fighting between Kiev and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. Germany and France were guarantors of the failed accords but later admitted that they only signed them to buy Kiev time to build up its military.
- 18:02 GMT
Washington has been discussing land concessions with Ukraine in the ceasefire talks, Trump has said.
“We’ve been discussing land with Ukraine, pieces of land that would be kept and lost,” he said, adding that the ownership of “a very big power plant” was part of the negotiations.
The proposed ceasefire is just the first phase of the negotiations, Trump stated.
- 17:46 GMT
Putin’s comment about Russia’s readiness to discuss a ceasefire was promising but “it wasn’t complete,” US President Donald Trump said on Thursday during a bilateral press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Witkoff and other US representatives are in Russia to discuss the proposed truce, among other things, he said.
“They’re in very serious discussions,” Trump stressed.
The Ukraine conflict is a big financial burden for the US and others, he said.
“We want it to stop. It’s also a tremendous cost to the United States and to other countries,” Trump said.
- 16:32 GMT
Russia supports the idea of ending the hostilities in the Ukraine conflict, but needs any potential ceasefire to facilitate a long-term peace, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
Speaking during a bilateral meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko Putin noted “We agree with the proposals to cease hostilities. But… this cessation must be such that it would lead to long-term peace and eliminate the initial causes of this crisis.”
Moscow has a number of questions about the US ceasefire proposal that will need to be raised in upcoming talks, Putin explained.
“I think that we need to discuss this with our American colleagues and partners,” he said.
“Maybe we could discuss this with President Trump over the telephone,” the Russian leader added.
Notwithstanding, Russia supports the idea of diplomatically ending the conflict, he said.
- 16:06 GMT
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow is in favor of a ceasefire, but has numerous questions about its practical implementation.
The Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk Region are cut off, and it would be unclear what is to be done with them in the event of a truce, he said.
”Are we supposed to let them out, after they committed mass war crimes against civilians? The Ukrainian leadership could tell them to lay down their arms, and just surrender,” the Russian president said.
It is also unclear how the ceasefire would be monitored and enforced, he added.
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