Volodymyr Zelensky commented on Putinʼs statement about the Russian Federationʼs position in the context of the 30-day ceasefire. According to him, Russia is now actually preparing a refusal.
The President of Ukraine said this in his evening address.
"Putin, of course, is afraid to tell President Trump directly that he wants to continue this war, wants to kill Ukrainians. And thatʼs why they, in Moscow, are putting such preconditions on the idea of silence that nothing will work out at all or that it will not work out for as long as possible," the President of Ukraine said.
According to him, everything that is happening now is another manipulation by the Russian Federation, because Ukraine agreed to silence in the sky, at sea and on the front. The American side spoke about its readiness to organize control and verification of the ceasefire. The President believes that this can be realistically ensured with American and European capabilities.
And during the ceasefire, you can prepare answers to all questions about long-term security and real peace and develop a plan to end the war.
"We are not setting conditions that complicate anything. Russia is doing that. As we have always said, the only one who will delay everything, the only one who will be unconstructive, is Russia. They need war," Zelensky stressed.
According to him, now we need to put pressure on Putin and Ukraine will continue to work with American, European partners, and everyone in the world who wants peace to force Russia to end the war.
What preceded
On March 11, negotiations between Ukrainian and the US delegations took place in Saudi Arabia. According to their results, Ukraine agreed to an immediate temporary ceasefire — in exchange, Washington decided to resume aid and intelligence sharing. Trumpʼs national security adviser Mike Waltz said that he would discuss the idea of a temporary ceasefire with his Russian counterpart "in the coming days".
"We hope that the Russians will say ʼyesʼ as soon as possible so that we can move on to the second phase of this, which is to have real negotiations (...) If they say ʼnoʼ, then we will unfortunately learn what is the obstacle to peace," Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed.
Volodymyr Zelensky said that a 30-day ceasefire will apply to the entire front line if Russia agrees to it.
Putin said on March 13 that the ceasefire is “the right idea” that Russia supports, but there are issues that still need to be discussed. He considers it very difficult to control violations during the ceasefire on the almost 2000 km² of the front line.
And also, according to him, it is unclear what will happen to those who remained in the Kursk region — whether the Ukrainian command will order the fighters to lay down their arms and surrender, or whether the Russian Federation should release them from this zone without a fight.
Putin says that during these 30 days of ceasefire, Ukraine can continue to receive weapons, mobilize, and train mobilized troops — the Russian Federation needs guarantees that this will not happen, but it is currently unclear how to control these moments.
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