The Western press today commented on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will accept the US proposal for a ceasefire in the conflict with Ukraine for an initial period of 30 days, BTA writes.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hopes that the ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine will take place "within days", the American newspaper "New York Times" wrote this morning.
"This is what we want the world to look like in the coming days: that both sides will not shoot at each other - neither with missiles, nor with bullets, with anything. Nor with artillery. "The shooting stops, the fighting stops, and the negotiations begin," he told reporters in Ireland, where his plane landed for refueling en route from Saudi Arabia to Canada.
Rubio and White House National Security Adviser Mike Walz held a several-hour meeting with Ukrainian officials in the Saudi city of Jeddah on Tuesday, during which Kiev agreed to a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire. Rubio then said that US officials would speak to Kremlin officials today to discuss it with them.
"If their answer is negative, it would be very unfortunate and would make their intentions clear", he stressed, quoted by the "New York Times".
The US Secretary of State also said that one of his main goals at the meeting of G-7 foreign ministers, which will be held today in the Canadian city of Quebec, is to unite the other countries of the group, each of which supports Ukraine, to unanimously encourage the start of peace talks.
US President Donald Trump has sent negotiators to Moscow "immediately", but it still seems unlikely that the Russian president will "put the ball back" in the direction expected by the Americans and Ukrainians, the French newspaper writes. "Figaro".
"It is obvious that the interests of the United States and Russia cannot coincide completely, even by 50 percent", said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in an interview with three American bloggers, quoted by the publication.
The Russian authorities are avoiding making a direct statement on the American-Ukrainian proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in order to "buy time" for negotiations, commented the Spanish newspaper "Pais".
The fear among military propagandists and politicians is that the ceasefire will only give strength to Ukraine, the publication pointed out and recalled the words of Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who emphasized that the final decision will be Moscow's. "Russia's position will not be formed abroad through any agreements or efforts of certain countries. "Russia's position is being formed inside Russia," she said.
"Will Vladimir Putin really agree to stop his killing machine?", asks the British newspaper „The Economist".
"A ceasefire is not in Russia's interest. A temporary pause in the fighting would give Ukraine a chance to rearm and hold out, because surveys show that Russians are tired of war. Whichever side resumes the fight first would also provoke international condemnation and the wrath of Trump," the publication writes.
But Putin's problem is that he still hasn't gotten what he wanted in Ukraine, "The Economist" notes. The Russian leader's goal was to subjugate or cripple the country, to sever its ties with the West, to get rid of the problematic President Volodymyr Zelensky, the publication notes.
Now what the Russian president wants is to win from Trump what he failed to take on the battlefield - and at times Trump seemed alarmingly ready to grant him, the publication comments.
The danger is that Putin will try to tie some of his conditions to the proposed ceasefire; it is essential that Trump resist any attempt to do so; if he backs down, he risks sabotaging his own administration's agreement with Ukraine, notes “The Economist”.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hopes for "decisive measures" from Washington if Russia refuses a ceasefire, the French newspaper writes. “Le Monde".
After signing the agreement in Jeddah, the Ukrainian president was careful not to offend the United States, trying to blame Moscow for the possible failure of the American ceasefire plan, the newspaper wrote.
Since Donald Trump came to power, Zelensky has tried to show that he remains calm and decisive; however, his rhetoric has changed - the word "victory", which was often used after the Ukrainian army resisted Russian forces at the gates of Kiev in 2022, has now been replaced by "peace"; and the "just and lasting peace" desired by Kiev has become - after Jeddah - an "honorable peace", notes "Monde".