MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday appeared to rule out a full ceasefire in Ukraine, claiming Kyiv would use any pause in fighting to rearm, mobilise forces, and prepare further attacks.
Ukraine has been pushing for an unconditional and immediate 30-day truce, issuing its latest proposal to Moscow at peace talks in Istanbul on Monday.
“Why reward them by giving them a break from the combat, which will be used to pump the regime with Western arms, to continue their forced mobilisation and to prepare different terrorist acts,” Putin said in a televised government meeting.
At talks on Monday, Russia outlined demands for such a ceasefire, including that Ukraine fully withdraw from four regions across its east and south that Moscow claims to have annexed.
Putin also accused Ukraine of being behind “terrorist” attacks on bridges in its border regions over the weekend, including one that caused a train to derail, killing seven people.
That attack — which Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for — was “directed at thwarting the negotiation process”, Putin said.
Russia instead proposed on Monday a short two-three-day ceasefire intended to let both armies collect the bodies of dead soldiers from the battlefield.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Putin that Kyiv had rejected that idea.
“I believe this is simply a gross mistake on the part of the regime in Kyiv,” he said.
Russia’s top negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky confirmed that Moscow was ready to go ahead with a large-scale prisoner exchange, agreed in Istanbul, on June 7-9, after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the first stage would take place this weekend.
Ukraine seeks allies’ support
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Kyiv’s military backers on Wednesday to ramp up support in a bid to pressure Russia towards peace.
“We must not allow Russia to blur reality or mislead the world. Moscow must be forced into diplomacy,” Zelensky said in a video address to defence ministers meeting in Brussels.
The call for action comes as Kyiv’s main backer the United States has stepped back from its support for Ukraine under President Donald Trump and pushed for a quick end to the fighting.
In a sign of Washington’s disengagement, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth missed the gathering in Brussels, despite being due to fly in for a NATO meeting on Thursday.
In his address, Zelensky urged allies to step up deliveries of air defences to ward off Russia’s missile and drone attacks, and to bolster Ukraine’s own defence industry.
Britain said it would step up supplies of drones to Kyiv “tenfold” and the Netherlands announced naval support worth 400 million euros ($450 million). – Agencies
