Ukraine warns of Putin's ceasefire

The US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are on a tour of Europe. First they met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and then Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyi in Dublin. The Americans are meeting with the presidents to discuss this week's peace talks in Abu Dhabi and what the road to peace should look like.

Few details of what was discussed in Moscow have leaked out, but state-controlled media in Russia were quick to report Vladimir Putin's proposal for a temporary ceasefire in the frontline town of Kostiantynivka, where fierce fighting has raged for nearly a year.

The Russian president wants to evacuate the city's residents in a "humanitarian effort".

- We need five days to clear the area around Kostiantynivka of mines, says Putin according to Russian media.

The proposal seems to have impressed the Americans. The Reuters news agency reports, citing the Kremlin, that the United States has backed Putin's proposal.

Ukraine, on the other hand, is more skeptical. When Melania Trump, Donald Trump's wife, negotiated a ceasefire in Oleshky to allow Ukraine and Russia to evacuate residents from the town, Sky News reported that Russia had abused the agreement.

According to Sky News, which obtained drone footage taken by the Ukrainian military, Russia used the ceasefire in Oleshky to bring heavy weapons and other military equipment into the city.

Ukraine believes that Russia will exploit the ceasefire again: they want to improve their positions when Ukraine cannot attack military convoys traveling under humanitarian cover.

"They brought in equipment and troops under the guise of a humanitarian operation in Oleshky, so it's clear what they want to achieve now," presidential adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said on Thursday.

However, Johan Huovinen, lieutenant colonel and military teacher of strategy at the Norwegian Defense Academy, does not believe that arms imports are the driving force behind Putin's proposal. He believes that Russia would hardly gain any military advantages at all from such an operation.

- It would be about a corridor concentrated in Kostiantynivka and a circle of another five, ten kilometers so it would not affect. Also, it looks like Russia will soon gain control of the city.

Russia began attacking the city in November 2025, but progress has been slow. The New York Times has warned that the city could become a new Bakhmut and intense fighting is currently taking place in Kostiantynivka, which is 70 kilometers north of the city of Donetsk.