MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Wednesday (Mar 12) it needed to be briefed by the United States on the outcome of US-Ukrainian talks in Saudi Arabia before it would comment on whether a proposed ceasefire was acceptable to Russia.
After more than eight hours of talks with Ukrainian officials in Jeddah on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US would take an offer of a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, accepted by Ukrainian officials, to Russia.
The United States also agreed to resume military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after earlier suspending them and opening up bilateral talks with Russia in a reversal of longstanding US policy on Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Russia was waiting for a briefing from Washington. He did not rule out the possibility of a phone call between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, which he said could be organised very quickly if needed.
A senior Russian source told Reuters earlier that Russia would need to hash out the terms of any ceasefire and get some sort of guarantees.
“It is difficult for Putin to agree to this in its current form,” the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, told Reuters. “Putin has a strong position because Russia is advancing.”
Russia controls just under a fifth of Ukraine, about 113,000 sq km and has been edging forward for months. Ukraine seized a sliver of western Russia in August as a bargaining chip but its grip there is weakening, according to open source maps of the war and Russian estimates.
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has left hundreds of thousands of dead and injured, displaced millions of people and triggered the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Source: CNA
