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Kremlin aide dismisses U.S.-Ukraine ceasefire proposal as Putin visits front line

Russia's Putin urged his soldiers to secure a quick victory in Kursk, where Kremlin forces recaptured the largest settlement previously occupied by Ukrainian forces.

MYKOLAIV, Ukraine — Russia sees the temporary ceasefire suggested by the U.S. and Ukraine as little more than a chance for Kyiv's forces to regroup, a senior aide to Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

Washington says it is waiting to hear Moscow's reaction to the temporary 30-day ceasefire plan sketched out by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Ukrainian counterparts in Saudi Arabia this week. President Donald Trump has suggested he could hit Russia with sanctions if they reject the proposal.

On Thursday Putin's foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov appeared to do just that, calling the outlined plan "nothing else than a temporary respite for the Ukrainian military, nothing more."

He told Russian state media that the country's "goal is still a long-term peaceful settlement... [that] takes into account the legitimate interests of our country."

Putin visits embattles Kursk region
Russian President Vladimir Putin on a visit to the Kursk region Wednesday.Kremlin.ru / AFP via Getty Images

"Steps that imitate peaceful actions, it seems to me, are of no use to anyone," he added, also saying that he conveyed that position to U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz in a phone call Wednesday.

Putin himself has made no suggestion he is prepared to soften his maximalist demands for ending a war in which Russia believes it has the upper hand. He wants Ukraine to withdraw from its regions partly occupied by Russia — essentially giving even more land to the Kremlin — while promising never to join NATO and protecting Russian culture and language inside the country.

Earlier Thursday, the Russian president urged his own soldiers to secure a quick and decisive victory while on a visit to the frontlines in the only Russian region where Ukrainian troops hold territory.

The former KGB agent dressed in military fatigues visited Kursk, the only region of Russia partly occupied by Russian troops. Soon after, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had recaptured the town of Sudzha, the largest settlement previously occupied by Ukrainian forces.

“Our task in the near future, in the shortest possible time frame, is to decisively defeat the enemy entrenched in the Kursk region,” Putin said. He also suggested creating “a security zone” on the border.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday in a media briefing that “there is no doubt that the Kursk region will be liberated soon enough.”

 

During a recent visit to Russia's embattled Kursk region, NBC News images show a statue of Lenin outside a municipal building in Rylsk, along with the shattered remains of a bombed-out concert hall and elementary school.
During a recent visit to Russia's embattled Kursk region, NBC News images show a statue of Lenin outside a municipal building in Rylsk, along with the shattered remains of a bombed-out concert hall and elementary school. Maxim Kazakov; Natasha Lebedeva / NBC News

In his remarks, Putin did not mention the ceasefire outlined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Ukrainian counterparts in Saudi Arabia this week.

Putin is expected to give a press conference with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a key ally, later Thursday.

Rubio, meanwhile, may discuss the war when he meets with the top diplomats at the Group of Seven, or G-7, summit in Quebec, Canada on Thursday. That might be an awkward appointment for the secretary of state given President Donald Trump's repeatedly saying he wants to take over Canada.

American and Russian officials have this week been talking behind the scenes. Trump has dispatched his envoy Steve Witkoff to Russia, while threatening sanctions for the Kremlin.

“I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace.”

Despite this threat, Trump has asked few concessions from the Kremlin, while openly suggesting Ukraine will have to agree to many of Putin’s demands.

The White House said Witkoff would be in Russia this week but declined to say when. Russia’s state-run Tass news agency cited the Flightradar tracking website saying that Witkoff’s plane had crossed into Russian airspace Thursday morning.

“Indeed, the negotiators are flying in, indeed, contacts are scheduled." Peskov told reporters Thursday.

 

Image: Steve Witkoff Speaks To Reporters At The White House
Steve Witkoff speaking to the media outside the White House last week.Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images

"Let’s not get ahead of ourselves," he added. "We’ll tell you later.”

The suggestion from talks in Saudi Arabia of an interim 30-day ceasefire has been welcomed by European leaders. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned them in his nightly address Wednesday about Russia's history of breaking truces.

“The key is our partners’ ability to ensure that Russia is ready not to deceive, but to truly end the war,” he said.

Ukrainian officials and citizens say they want peace, but only alongside security guarantees that ensure the Kremlin does not attack again.

“I think 99% of Ukrainians wants the war to end in a fair way,” Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv oblast, told NBC News on Wednesday. “We want some guarantees that it will not come back in a couple of years.”

Here, in the southern city of Mykolaiv, some residents are deeply unimpressed by what they see as Trump’s attempts to force Ukraine into an unfavorable and risky settlement.

It’s like “a young child’s tricks,” said Yuriy, 46, a construction worker pushing his month-old baby in a stroller near the city’s memorial for dead soldiers. “My daughter is acting in her one-month life better than trump in his 70-plus years. She at least s---s in her diapers, and that guy s---s on the whole world.”

One country taking no chances is Poland, the former Eastern Bloc nation that raised defense spending to 4.7% this year and is among Russia’s most vocal critics.

Polish President Andrzej Duda told the Financial Times newspaper Thursday that he wanted the U.S. to redeploy American nuclear weapons from Western Europe to inside his country.

“There should also be a shift of the NATO infrastructure east,” he said. “For me, this is obvious.”

Author: Richard Engel and Alexander Smith

Source: NBC News

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