Putin Rejects Immediate Pause In Ukraine Fighting Amid Gains

"President Vladimir Putin of Russia said he didn't support an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine, calling instead for more discussion on a permanent end to the war, as Moscow's army made rapid gains toward driving Ukraine's forces out of Russia's Kursk region.

Putin said any pause in fighting now would be in Ukraine's interest because Russia is gaining on the battlefield, and a host of issues would need to be resolved before a cease-fire could be reached.

"The idea itself is good, and we of course support it, but there are questions we have to discuss," Putin said, referring to a proposed 30-day cease-fire in the war, adding that Russia sought a lasting peace that would need to eliminate the "root causes" of the conflict.

The comments were the first official response from Moscow after Ukraine agreed this week to a U.S.-backed proposal for a pause in the war, now in its fourth year. Putin spoke as President Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, was due in Moscow to discuss the proposal, according to two U.S. officials.

Trump said Thursday he planned to speak with Putin soon and he was pressing for a speedy end to the conflict. Of Putin's comments, he said, "He put out a very promising statement, but it wasn't complete."

"I'd love to meet with him and talk to him, but we have to get it over with fast," Trump said, sitting next to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. Asked about the continuing talks with Russia, Trump said they were "very serious" and added: "Hopefully they'll do the right thing."

The cease-fire offer, negotiated by the U.S. and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia, put pressure on the Russian leader to signal a willingness to work toward peace. On Thursday, Putin thanked Trump for bringing attention to a cease-fire in Ukraine, but he also raised a litany of issues that he said needed to be resolved before the fighting could end.

Putin said it wasn't clear how such a cease-fire would be enforced and whether it would give Ukraine the chance to shore up its forces. "Who will give orders to stop fighting? What is the price of those orders? Who will determine where and by whom they were violated?" he said, adding he intended to discuss such questions with Trump.

Russia in the past has repeatedly ruled out a temporary cease-fire and insisted that reaching a lasting agreement to halt fighting would take time.

Many of the "root causes" of the war cited by Putin were set out in a draft treaty drawn up by Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in April 2022, weeks after Moscow's invasion began.

Russia justified its actions that year as a defense against NATO expansion, and that document envisions a postwar Ukraine that is disarmed and permanently neutral, unaligned with any military blocs.

Moscow insists on keeping at least the 18% of Ukrainian territory it already controls, an area equivalent to Virginia in size. It wants to reverse policies that have sidelined Russian cultural influence in Ukraine and preclude the country's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

With its army advancing on the battlefield and retaking territory that Ukraine had hoped to use as a bargaining chip, Russia has little incentive to stop the fighting.

"Putin doesn't feel any pressure," said Konstantin Sonin, a Russia expert who teaches at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. "Trump has no leverage over him, and he thinks he's winning."

Russia's military said Thursday that it had retaken Sudzha, the biggest town held by Ukraine in the Kursk region, after recapturing a string of villages in recent days. Ukraine didn't respond to a request for comment. Kyiv has been using Sudzha as a logistical hub to resupply troops in the area.

Putin visited a command post in Kursk on Wednesday, his first time in the region since Ukraine's incursion there, and addressed top army officials dressed in military fatigues. On Thursday, he said the situation in Kursk was fully under Russia's control and Ukraine was on the verge of being ousted.

The rapid retreat of Ukraine's forces in Kursk followed a pause in U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine in the wake of an Oval Office confrontation between Zelensky and Trump. Washington said it would restart military aid after Ukraine agreed to the terms of a cease-fire.

The loss of Ukraine's toehold in Kursk, where at one point it had captured an area about the size of Los Angeles city, would mark a significant defeat for Kyiv. Russia has thrown enormous resources into the campaign to recapture its territory, deploying North Korean troops and staging daring operations. One unit crawled through a disused section of a natural gas pipeline this week to outflank Ukrainian troops defending Sudzha. Critics of the Kursk operation, including some in Ukraine, said the incursion into Russia had drained resources and manpower from parts of the Ukrainian front line. Zelensky has argued that control of Russian territory would provide leverage in any future cease-fire negotiations.

On Wednesday, Oleksandr Syrskiy, commander of Ukraine's armed forces, said his priority was to safeguard the lives of Ukrainian troops." [1]

1.  Putin Rejects Immediate Pause In Ukraine Fighting Amid Gains. Luxmoore, Matthew; Andrews, Natalie.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 14 Mar 2025: A1.