Russia has presented the US with a list of demands for a deal to end its invasion of Ukraine and reset relations with Washington, it has been reported.
The demands were submitted to Washington after Ukraine accepted a 30-day proposal discussed with the US during peace talks in Saudi Arabia on 11 March.
It is unclear what was included in that letter, but a senior Russian official told state media that any long-term peace deal rests on guarantees that Ukraine will not be allowed to join Nato.
“We will demand that ironclad security guarantees become part of this agreement,” deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko said. “Part of these guarantees should be the neutral status of Ukraine, the refusal of NATO countries to accept it into the alliance.”
The Ukraine-US talks in Saudi Arabia produced a commitment that the US would renew intelligence and “security support” after suspending both last week following a disastrous White House meeting between President Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky in February.
On Wednesday it emerged that UK officials, including a Downing Street fixer, were reportedly “intimately involved” in brokering the talks.
Below we look at everything we know about the ceasefire deal so far.
During a press conference in the Kremlin on Thursday, Vladimir Putin said he agreed with the ceasefire but added there were “nuances” that had to be discussed.
He would agree to a truce based on the assumption it would lead to “a long-term peace”, he claimed, adding that any such agreement had to eliminate the “root causes” of the conflict.
The Russian president said Russian forces were moving forward along the entire front line and that the ceasefire would have to ensure that Ukraine did not seek to use it simply to regroup.
While Russian forces have staged a successful counteroffensive in the border region of Kursk in the last week, their attacks in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk have slowed to a halt. Ukrainians have begun launching counterattacks along that eastern line, particularly in Toretsk.
The overwhelming concern among Ukrainians and their European allies is that it is Russia that would use a pause in fighting to regroup and attack Ukraine again.
Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk would have to “surrender or die”, Mr Putin warned. He questioned what would happen to troops currently in Kursk during any truce.
Previously, he has ruled out territorial concessions and said Ukraine must withdraw fully from four Ukrainian regions claimed and partly controlled by Russia. He has also insisted any ceasefire could proceed only if the West gave a guarantee that Ukraine would not join Nato.
