Bloomberg: Putin sets US condition for ceasefire with Ukraine

Vladimir Putin, photo: GETTY IMAGES

During the visit of US special envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow, Russian leader Vladimir Putin set a condition under which Russia would agree to a truce with Ukraine. It concerns military assistance to Kyiv.

Bloomberg reports this with reference to a senior European official and three people in Moscow familiar with the Kremlin's position.

According to the sources, Vladimir Putin is demanding that the United States stop supplying Ukraine with weapons. This, in his view, should be a precondition for signing a ceasefire agreement.

Russia wants a complete cessation of international military assistance to Ukraine, but its minimum goal is to stop at least the supply from the United States.

On 13 March, Steve Vitkoff arrived in Moscow and held talks with Vladimir Putin. It was reported that Donald Trump's special envoy had to wait eight hours for the meeting, but Donald Trump denied this information, calling its authors «sick degenerates».

Witkoff's visit to Moscow followed a meeting between the Ukrainian delegation and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Volz in Saudi Arabia. There, Kyiv supported the idea of a temporary ceasefire.

On the same day, Vladimir Putin said that Moscow generally agreed with the initiative, but, according to him, there were still issues that needed further discussion.

After the talks in Moscow , Steve Witkoff returned to the United States for consultations with President Donald Trump on the next steps.