The game about Ukraine's future was moved to Moscow on Thursday, where the US special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived for a meeting with Putin in the evening.
But the Russian president made several statements about the proposal for a 30-day ceasefire at a press conference with Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukasjenko.
In principle, Putin said he was willing, but the list of demands was long and the claims about the Russian invasion war in Ukraine were many.
We agree to a proposal for a ceasefire – but it must lead to lasting peace where the underlying fundamental problems of the conflict are eliminated, said Putin.
Returned the negotiating ball
Putin chose to turn the question around during a press conference that mostly seemed to consist of dignitaries and selected journalists. Putin indirectly chose to blame Ukraine – and returned the negotiating ball to Washington:
We may need to talk to our American colleagues and partners, maybe through a conversation with US President Donald Trump, said Putin.
Trump commented briefly on the statements in Moscow when he received NATO's Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House. Trump said the statement was "not entirely complete":
I would really like to meet (Putin) or talk to him. But we must get it done quickly.
"Eliminate fundamental problems"
The brief response followed President Putin's lengthy explanations of the Kremlin's view on the full-scale invasion.
The fundamental causes of the conflict must be eliminated, said Putin at the press meeting where, among others, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sat in the front row.
Putin also claimed that Russian forces had regained control over the Russian region of Kursk, and simultaneously sent a warning to Ukrainian soldiers:
Surrender or die.
Lukasjenko, in turn, claimed in well-rehearsed statements that the blame for the conflict did not lie with Russia.
Europe's fate lies in their hands, says Lukasjenko, referring to Western countries.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyj briefly and bluntly stated that he recognized Putin's rhetoric:
We have now all heard Putin's very predictable, very manipulative words about a ceasefire", says Zelenskyj in his daily address to Ukraine's population.
"Ukraine ready"
The Russian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Maria Zacharova simultaneously stated that if other countries' soldiers are sent to Ukraine as peacekeepers, it would mean "direct armed conflict" with Russia.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyj repeated on Thursday that Ukraine is ready for a ceasefire, while Russia apparently wants to continue waging war.
"Ukraine was ready for a ceasefire in the air and at sea, but the USA proposed to extend it to also apply on land", he wrote after this week's negotiations in Saudi Arabia.
