The Kremlin kept Donald Trump’s special envoy waiting for eight hours before he left just hours later, in a ‘classic Putin power play’.
Mr Trump’s chief negotiator Steve Witkoff spent two thirds of his just 12 hours in the Russian capital waiting before he could deliver the US President’s proposals for a 30-day ceasefire.
Pictures showed his motorcade arriving at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport at around midday on Thursday, before he was kept hanging around for up to eight hours.
Such a move is considered highly disrespectful in international diplomacy.
Sky News reported that Mr Witkoff’s meeting was delayed while Mr Putin was meeting Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko who arrived on Thursday for a hastily arranged state visit.
He then departed four hours later – just before Vnukovo airport was closed due to a Ukrainian drone strike.
Commenting on the visit, the Kremlin’s spokesman Dimitry Peskov said Mr Putin gave Mr Witkoff ‘information and additional signals’ for the US President.
Mr Putin told reporters on Thursday he would have a phone call with President Trump to discuss a ceasefire. Mr Trump has also said he would ‘love’ to meet and talk to the Russian president.
‘There are certainly some grounds for cautious optimism,’ Mr Peskov added of the ceasefire proposal.
‘A lot still needs to be done, but the president has shown solidarity with President Trump’s position.’
The Russian president added that any truce must lead to ‘long term peace’ but noted that issues remained including the development of a mechanism to control possible breaches of the ceasefire and the possibility that Ukraine could use the 30-day pause to rearm and continue to mobilise.
Analysts have warned the Russian leader will likely be reluctant to rush into a ceasefire while his troops have momentum on the battlefield and he feels he has an advantage.
Ukraine has already endorsed President Trump’s proposals under severe pressure.
The US leader briefly suspended critical military aid and intelligence sharing in an apparent effort to push Kyiv into entering talks on ending the war.
On March 3 he lifted the ban after US and Ukrainian officials reported progress during talks in Saudi Arabia.
Despite labelling the situation a ‘real mess’, Mr Trump said on Friday that many more people would be ‘needlessly dead’ if Ukraine and Russia failed to agree on a ceasefire deal.
He wrote on his Truth Social platform: ‘Millions of people are needlessly dead, never to be seen again…and there will be many more to follow if we don’t get the Cease Fire and Final Agreement with Russia completed and signed.’
The US President also directly called on Mr Putin to spare Ukrainian troops he said were ‘surrounded’ in the Kursk region, which Russia has retaken after it was seized by Kyiv last August.
‘I have strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared. This would be a horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II. God bless them all!!!’, he said.
An estimated 500,000 people have died since Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago.
Mr Trump has also threatened to cripple Russia’s economy with sanctions if it doesn’t agree to a deal to end the fighting.
However Mr Putin has demanded a wide range of concessions before committing, including for Russia to control territory it has captured thus far and for Ukraine to abandon any plans to join NATO.
His conditions also include the easing of western sanctions on Russia and for elections to be held in Ukraine – a demand Kyiv says is impossible to fulfil while martial law is in force.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Mr Putin’s response ‘highly predictable’ and ‘manipulative words’ aimed at dragging out the process by setting unworkable conditions.
On Thursday the Kremlin showed few signs of bowing to any pressure. Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said the US deal would serve a ‘temporary respite’ for the Ukrainian military.
He said that Moscow sought a ceasefire that ‘takes into account the legitimate interests of our country and our known concerns,’ rather than a temporary pause in fighting.
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