Will Putin Agree To The Russia-Ukraine War Armistice Proposal?

ILLUSTRATION/Russian Military/Dmitry Yagodkin/TASS

JAKARTA - President Vladimir Putin is said to be unlikely to approve US proposals for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, sources in Russia said.

Any agreement is stressed to have to take into account Russia's progress on the battlefield and address Moscow's concerns.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has left hundreds of thousands of people dead and injured, displaced millions, and sparked the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

US President Donald Trump has reversed previous US policies against Russia, opened bilateral talks with Moscow and suspended military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, saying Ukraine should agree to terms to end the war.

The United States agreed on Tuesday to resume military aid and intelligence sharing after Kyiv said it was ready to support a ceasefire proposal.

A senior Russian source told Reuters Russia needed to discuss the terms of the ceasefire and get some kind of guarantee.

"It is difficult for Putin to agree to this in its current form," the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, told Reuters.

"Putin has a strong position because Russia is progressing," he said.

Russia controls nearly a fifth of Ukraine's territory, about 113,000 square km (43,630 miles) and has moved forward for months.

Ukraine seized a small part of western Russia in August as a bargaining chip, but its grip there weakened, according to an open map of Russia's war sources and estimates.

Russian sources said without guarantees in addition to the ceasefire Russia's position could quickly become weaker and Russia could then be blamed by the West for failing to end the war.

Another senior Russian source said the ceasefire's proposal from a Moscow point of view looked like a trap as Putin would find it difficult to stop the war without collateral or concrete promises.

A third Russian source said the big picture was that the United States had agreed to continue military aid and intelligence sharing and had graced the move with the proposed ceasefire.

The Kremlin has not commented on the ceasefire's proposal.