Putin Has Only One Condition for Ceasefire in Ukraine: Halt Western Arms Supplies

18.03.2025 16:02

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly made the halt of Western arms supplies to Ukraine a prerequisite for signing a ceasefire agreement, Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar with the discussions.

Vladimir Putin

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by Presidential Executive of Russia, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

During a meeting last week with Steve Witkoff, a special envoy for US President Donald Trump, Putin insisted that the suspension of military aid be a preliminary condition for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine. The report, citing a senior European official and other sources, notes that while arms deliveries may be paused temporarily, they could resume after a peace deal—one that would require Kyiv to agree to limits on its military capabilities.

On March 13, Putin stated that Russia was open to halting hostilities, but emphasized that any ceasefire must lead to a lasting peace and address the root causes of the conflict. He also raised concerns over monitoring and verification mechanisms, which remain unresolved.

Details

The Minsk agreements were a series of international agreements which sought to end the Donbas war fought between armed Russian separatist groups and Armed Forces of Ukraine, with Russian regular forces playing a central part. After a defeat at Ilovaisk at the end of August 2014, Russia forced Ukraine to sign the first Minsk Protocol, or the Minsk I. It was drafted by the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, consisting of Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), with mediation by the leaders of France (François Hollande) and Germany (Angela Merkel) in the so-called Normandy Format. After extensive talks in Minsk, Belarus, the agreement was signed on 5 September 2014 by representatives of the Trilateral Contact Group and, without recognition of their status, by the then-leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). This agreement followed multiple previous attempts to stop the fighting in the region and aimed to implement an immediate ceasefire.

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