Russia sticks to red lines on 30-day Ukraine ceasefire plan – as Zelenskyy attacks ‘manipulative’ Putin

Published

5 months ago

March 14, 2025

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Vladimir Putin has said Russia agrees to an end to fighting in Ukraine, but “lots of questions” remain over proposals for a 30-day ceasefire.

Casting doubt over whether a deal can be agreed, the Russian president said a ceasefire must lead to “long-term peace” which “would remove the initial reasons for the crisis”.

Russia has previously said it would not accept Ukraine joining NATO and European peacekeepers in Ukraine.

Moscow has reportedly also presented a “list of demands” to the US to end the war, which would include international recognition of Russia’s claim to Crimea and four Ukrainian provinces.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Mr Putin’s remarks were “very predictable” and “very manipulative”, adding that the Russian president was preparing to reject the ceasefire proposal he agreed with the US.

Mr Putin’s comments came as Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow ahead of talks over Ukraine with the Russian president.

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Speaking on Thursday afternoon, Mr Putin described the situation in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have pushed into Moscow’s territory, as “completely under our control”.

It appeared the US had persuaded Ukraine to accept the ceasefire, he said, but Ukraine is also interested because of the battlefield situation, with its forces in Kursk fully blocked in the coming days.

“In these conditions, I believe it would be good for the Ukrainian side to secure a ceasefire for at least 30 days,” he said.

He also said there would need to be a mechanism to control possible breaches of the truce.

Another issue he raised was whether Ukraine could use the 30-day ceasefire to continue to mobilise and rearm.

He said he would need to speak to Mr Trump over the terms of any ceasefire.

Moscow’s maximalist position hasn’t changed

Vladimir Putin was never going to flat out reject the US proposal for a ceasefire, but he also wasn’t going to fully endorse it either. Russia’s agreement, as expected, comes with several strings attached.

The Kremlin leader didn’t specify Moscow’s demands but he did allude to them by saying that any peace deal had to eliminate the “root causes” of the conflict.

It’s become a frequent refrain of his, and shows that Moscow’s maximalist position hasn’t changed.

By “root causes”, the Russian president is referring to NATO’s eastward expansion, which he blames as the catalyst for the war in Ukraine.

It’s a very clear indication his agreement to a ceasefire relies on getting some kind of security guarantees of his own, for example a promise Ukraine will never join NATO, or that there’ll never be any European peacekeeping forces from NATO members based in the country in the future.

He also articulated why Moscow is reluctant to agree to an immediate truce, talking at length about his forces’ advances in Kursk region. Ukraine’s incursion there has been humiliating for the Kremlin, but their expulsion is finally within reach.

Mr Putin doesn’t want that opportunity to slip away. By pausing Russia’s offensive, he fears they’ll lose the advantage and give the enemy time to regroup.

Mr Putin was, however, careful to thank Donald Trump for his efforts in trying to reach a peace agreement, perhaps wary of any backlash from the White House. But despite that, he still doesn’t appear to be showing any sign of compromise.

Mr Putin was speaking alongside Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko and the pair said in a joint statement that NATO’s actions regarding the war in Ukraine were fraught with the risk of nuclear conflict.

The two countries also criticised the European Union’s policy towards Russia, labelling it aggressive and confrontational.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 has left thousands of people dead and injured, millions displaced and towns and cities reduced to rubble.

Moscow’s forces have been advancing since the middle of last year and now control nearly a fifth of Ukraine’s territory.

In his speech Mr Putin said Russian forces were pushing forwards along the entire frontline.

Responding to the comments, Mr Zelenskyy said: “Putin, of course, is afraid to say directly to President Trump that he wants to continue this war, he wants to kill Ukrainians.”

He said Mr Putin’s words were “just another Russian manipulation”.

Mr Trump also responded to the remarks, saying Mr Putin’s statement was not complete and reiterated his willingness to talk to the Russian president, adding: “Hopefully Russia will do the right thing.”

In a news conference with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte, the US president shifted his tone on the alliance, saying it was “stepping up” and praising Mr Rutte for doing “some really good work”.

Mr Rutte said NATO members needed to produce more weapons, stating the alliance was not doing enough and was lagging behind Russia and China.

It comes after Mr Putin donned a camouflage uniform to visit a command post in the Kursk region on Wednesday.

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Israel silences more crucial reporting voices from inside Gaza

Published

6 hours ago

August 11, 2025

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Israel silences more crucial reporting voices from inside Gaza

The targeted killing of Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif and four other colleagues by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) late on Sunday silences more crucial reporting voices from inside Gaza.

The IDF wasted no time in releasing a statement claiming it had “eliminated” Al-Sharif, calling him a “terrorist” who “posed” as a journalist for Al Jazeera.

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The Committee to Protect Journalists warned in July that Al-Sharif was the victim of an Israeli smear campaign and that they feared for his safety.

The IDF had previously released documents which they say proved his involvement with Hamas.

No word from them on his colleagues – Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa – who they also killed. We are chasing.

Al-Sharif’s death – and that of his four colleagues – is a chilling message to the journalistic community both on the ground and elsewhere ahead of Israel’s impending push into Gaza City.

There will now be fewer journalists left to cover that story, and – if it is even possible – they will be that bit more fearful.

This is how journalists are silenced. Israel knows this full well.

It has also not allowed international journalists independent access to enter Gaza to report on the war.

Al-Sharif’s death has sent shockwaves across the region, where he was a household name. He was prolific on social media and had a huge following.

I was watching horrifying footage of the immediate aftermath of the strike in the taxi on my way into the bureau, and the driver told me how he and his family had all cried for Anas when the news came in.

His little daughter cried because of Al-Sharif’s little daughter, Sham, who she knew from social media.

“They call everyone Hamas,” my taxi driver said. “Men, women, children”.

Last month, Al-Sharif wrote this post: “I haven’t stopped covering [the crisis] for a moment in 21 months, and today I say it outright… and with indescribable pain.

“I am drowning in hunger, trembling in exhaustion and resisting the fainting that follows me every moment… Gaza is dying. And we die with it.”

This is what journalists in Gaza are facing, every single day.

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Israel’s PM tries to get on front foot in propaganda war he knows he is losing

Published

12 hours ago

August 11, 2025

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Israel's PM tries to get on front foot in propaganda war he knows he is losing

Israel’s prime minister added more detail to his deeply controversial plans for military escalation in Gaza at a news conference with foreign media yesterday – despite the condemnation of the UN Security Council, which met in an emergency session and urged him to rethink.

Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “fairly short timetable” to establish designated “safe zones” for the one million or so set to be displaced from Gaza City.

He also vowed to seize and dismantle Hamas’s final strongholds there – in the central refugee camps, and in al Mawasi, along Gaza’s southwestern coast.

This, per Netanyahu, is the only way to destroy the terror group, which he claimed “subjugates Gazans, steals their food and shoots them when they try to move to safety”.

Al Mawasi is already home to a significant displaced population, most of whom live in tents cramped up against the Mediterranean Sea, in what is already a designated humanitarian zone.

If members of Hamas live among them, rooting them out will be hugely complicated and will involve significant civilian casualties. If the residents of Gaza City can’t evacuate south to al Mawasi, where will they go?

Netanyahu’s plan is to set up more aid distribution sites through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and to flood Gaza with food.

He claimed his policy was not one of forced starvation – describing particular photos of starving babies as “fake news”, and accusing the media of painting a false picture.

“The only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages,” the prime minister claimed.

I asked Netanyahu how he would go about preventing the kinds of daily killings taking place at aid distribution points in the months since GHF has been operating.

Doctors Without Borders has described these incidents as deliberately orchestrated.

The prime minister said increasing the amount of aid heading into the Strip was the answer.

“And by the way, a lot of the firing was done by Hamas seeking to have a response by our forces,” he added. “And very often they didn’t, they held back. They stayed their own fire even though their own lives were on the line.”

This was Israel’s prime minister trying to get on the front foot in a propaganda war he acknowledged he was losing. He was loath to admit the presence of famine in Gaza.

It took two questions before he acknowledged there was “deprivation”, even if he would not be drawn on whether his 11-week total blockade of the strip earlier this year had played any role.

He recognises that the appalled response of the international community to the human cost of this war, and the accusations of war crimes and genocide which Israel so vehemently rejects, are a terrible look.

This was his attempt to reclaim the narrative.

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Defiant Netanyahu sets out plan for military escalation in Gaza – and describes photographs of starving babies as ‘fake news’

Published

18 hours ago

August 10, 2025