Putin’s Suggestion of Ukraine Ceasefire Rejected by United States – Sources
Following negotiations via intermediaries, the US rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine to halt the fighting, according to three Russian sources familiar with the discussions.
The failure of Putin’s strategy brings in the third year of Europe’s worst conflict since World War II, demonstrating how far apart the world’s two strongest nuclear powers remain.
A US official denied there had been any official communication and stated that Washington would not participate in negotiations that did not include Ukraine.
In 2023, Putin signaled to Washington in public and privately through proxies, including Moscow’s Arab neighbors in the Middle East and others, that he was willing to contemplate a truce in Ukraine.
Putin was proposing to freeze the conflict at the current lines and was unwilling to cede any of the Ukrainian territory controlled by Russia, but the signal offered what some in the Kremlin saw as the best path towards a peace of some kind.
“The contacts with the Americans came to nothing,” a senior Russian source with knowledge of the discussions in late 2023 and early 2024 told Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.
A second Russian source with knowledge of the contacts told Reuters that the Americans told Moscow, via the intermediaries, they would not discuss a possible ceasefire without the participation of Ukraine and so the contacts ended in failure.
A third source with knowledge of the discussions said: “Everything fell apart with the Americans.” The source said that the Americans did not want to pressure Ukraine.
The extent of the contacts – and their failure – has not previously been reported.
It comes as U.S. President Joe Biden has for months been pushing Congress to approve more aid for Ukraine but has faced opposition from allies of Republican presidential nomination frontrunner Donald Trump.
The Kremlin, the White House, the U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) all declined to comment.
