Russian President Vladimir Putin wants a ceasefire in Ukraine, but has not yet received a response to key questions from the Russian Federation, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Monday, April 7. After US President Donald Trump assumed the position of peace negotiator, his proposal for a ceasefire was accepted by Kiev, but not by Moscow.Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a man of peace, has repeatedly stated that he wants the more than three-year war in Ukraine to end and has warned of the risks of escalation into a global war between the United States and Russia.Last month, Putin stated that Russia supports the US proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine in principle, but that fighting cannot be stopped until a number of essential conditions are established or clarified. The Kremlin maintains that these questions have not yet received an answer.”President Putin supports the idea of the need for a ceasefire, but before that, a number of questions must be answered,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “These questions are still up in the air; so far, no one has answered them,” he added.Putin has stated that any peace agreement must address what Moscow sees as the root causes of the conflict: essentially, a war between Russia and the West over the future of Ukraine and the expansion of NATO into Russia’s borders.The Kremlin leader said the ceasefire should guarantee that Ukraine does not simply use the respite to regroup and that key issues regarding monitoring the armistice should be clarified.On Monday, the Kremlin blamed Kiev for the lack of answers, saying they were unable to control a number of “extremist and nationalist units.”Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in turn, stated that Putin’s demands for a ceasefire are unrealistic and accused the Russian leader of wanting to continue the war.
