President Vladimir Putin says Russia agrees with US proposals to stop fighting but any ceasefire would have to deal with the root causes of the conflict.
US negotiators are in Russia to present their plan for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, as Washington pushes Moscow for an “unconditional” pause to the three-year conflict.
A top Kremlin aide says any Ukraine peace settlement must secure Russia’s “interests” and that Putin would probably give his opinion on the US ceasefire proposal later.
Putin is meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow.
Russia says countries deploying peacekeepers in Ukraine would be engaging in a “direct armed conflict” with Moscow and it would respond by “all available means”.
