Moscow, March 14 (IANS) Russian President Vladimir Putin has met US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and was provided “additional details” on the US-Ukrainian talks held in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah earlier this week, the Kremlin announced on Friday.
At the meeting on Thursday, President Putin also gave the envoy “information and additional signals for President Trump”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, RT reported.
After the Jeddah talks on Tuesday, a joint US-Ukrainian statement said that Kiev agreed to a proposed 30-day ceasefire with Russia, while the US announced the resumption of military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
Witkoff had come to Moscow to deliver the details of the proposal to top Russian government officials, who have yet to issue a formal response.
Peskov said that the US representative had met President Putin to deliver “additional details” to the Russian leader.
At a press conference on Thursday, the Russian President said that Russia “absolutely supports” the idea of resolving the Ukraine conflict through peaceful means and is ready to discuss Trump’s ceasefire proposal.
“…the idea itself is the right one, and we certainly support it. But there are questions that we have to discuss. I think we need to work with our American partners. Maybe I will speak to President Trump. But we support the idea of ending this conflict with peaceful means,” he said, suggesting that dialogue could include a personal conversation with the US leader. The US President is keen on this too.
“(Putin) put out a very promising statement, but it wasn’t complete. And, yeah, I’d love to meet with him or talk to him,” Trump told journalists during a press conference alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte later on the same day.
However, President Putin stressed that all the details of a ceasefire must first be clarified, noting that Moscow is not interested in a short-term solution and instead wants to reach a lasting resolution of the conflict.
He highlighted the need for a system of “control and verification” to monitor any truce as well as potential Ukrainian attempts to use the pause in hostilities to rearm and reinforce its troops on the front line. He also noted the importance of clarifying the status and fate of Ukrainian troops currently encircled in Russia’s Kursk Region, after their incursion there last year.
–IANS
vd