MOSCOW: An envoy of US President Donald Trump arrived in Moscow on Thursday for talks on an American-proposed 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine has accepted but which a senior Russian official said would help Kyiv by giving its weary and shorthanded military a break, three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The diplomatic development coincided with a Russian claim that its troops have driven the Ukrainian army out of a key town in Russia’s Kursk border region, where Moscow has been trying for seven months to dislodge Ukrainian troops from their foothold.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Russia for talks with officials on the US ceasefire proposal, according to a US official who wasn’t authorized to comment on the matter.
The Russian Defense Ministry’s claim that it recaptured the town of Sudzha, a Ukrainian operational hub in Kursk, hours after President Vladimir Putin visited his commanders in Kursk and wore military fatigues, couldn’t be independently verified. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment on the claim.
The renewed Russian military push and Putin’s high-profile visit to his troops came as US President Donald Trump presses for a diplomatic end to the war. The US on Tuesday lifted its March 3 suspension of military aid for Kyiv after senior US and Ukrainian officials made progress on how to stop the fighting during talks held in Saudi Arabia.
Trump said Wednesday that “it’s up to Russia now” as his administration presses Moscow to agree to the ceasefire. The US president has made veiled threats to hit Russia with new sanctions if it won’t engage with peace efforts.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn’t comment on Moscow’s view of the ceasefire proposal.
“Before the talks start, and they haven’t started yet, it would be wrong to talk about it in public,” he told reporters.
Senior US officials say they hope to see Russia stop attacks on Ukraine within the next few days.
But Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, complained in televised remarks Thursday that a ceasefire would grant a “temporary break for the Ukrainian military.”
Speaking later to reporters in the Kremlin, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, reaffirmed that the US-proposed ceasefire would “give us nothing,” adding that it would “only give the Ukrainians a chance to regroup, consolidate their forces and keep doing the same in the future.”
Ushakov wouldn’t comment on Witkoff’s talks in Moscow on Thursday, saying that the parties agreed to keep them confidential.
Ushakov said that Moscow wants a “long-term peaceful settlement that takes into account Moscow’s interests and concerns.” His comments came a day after his phone call with Waltz.
Ushakov’s comments echoed statements from Putin, who has repeatedly said a temporary ceasefire would benefit Ukraine and its Western allies.
Ukraine has leveled similar accusations to Ushakov’s, claiming Russia would use a truce to regroup and rearm.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky chided Russia on his Telegram messaging app Thursday for what he said was its slow response to the ceasefire proposal, accusing Moscow of trying to delay any peace deal. He said that Ukraine is “determined to move quickly toward peace” and hoped US pressure would compel Russia to stop fighting.
The US still has about $3.85 billion in congressionally authorized funding for future arms shipments to Ukraine, but the Trump administration has shown no interest so far in using that authority to send additional weapons as it awaits the outcome of peace overtures.
By signaling its openness to a ceasefire, Ukraine has presented the Kremlin with a dilemma at a time when the Russian military has the upper hand in the war — whether to accept a truce and abandon hopes of making new gains, or reject the offer and risk derailing a cautious rapprochement with Washington.
The Ukrainian army’s foothold inside Russia has been under intense pressure for months from a renewed effort by Russian forces, backed by North Korean troops. Ukraine’s daring incursion last August led to the first occupation of Russian soil by foreign troops since World War II and embarrassed the Kremlin.
Speaking to commanders Wednesday, Putin said that he expected the military “to completely free the Kursk region from the enemy in the nearest future.”
Putin added that “it’s necessary to think about creating a security zone alongside the state border,” in a signal that Moscow could try to expand its territorial gains by capturing parts of Ukraine’s neighboring Sumy region. That idea could complicate a ceasefire deal.
Ukraine launched the raid in a bid to counter the unceasingly glum news from the front line, as well as draw Russian troops away from the battlefield inside Ukraine and gain a bargaining chip in any peace talks. But the incursion didn’t significantly change the dynamic of the war.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, assessed late Wednesday that Russian forces were in control of Sudzha, a town close to the border that previously was home to about 5,000 people.
Ukraine’s top military commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said late Wednesday that Russian aviation had carried out an unprecedented number of strikes on Kursk and that as a result Sudzha had been almost completely destroyed. He didn’t comment on whether Ukraine still controlled the settlement, but said it was “maneuvering (troops) to more advantageous lines.”
Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Dmytro Krasylnykov, commander of Ukraine’s Northern Operational Command, which includes the Kursk region, was dismissed from his post, he told Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne on Wednesday. He told the outlet that he wasn’t given a reason for his dismissal, saying “I’m guessing, but I don’t want to talk about it yet.”