President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia agreed with US proposals to stop fighting but said that any ceasefire should lead to a long-lasting peace and would have to deal with the root causes of the conflict.

"We agree with the proposals to cease hostilities," Mr Putin told reporters at a news conference in the Kremlin following talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

"But we proceed from the fact that this cessation should be such that it would lead to long-term peace and would eliminate the original causes of this crisis," he added.

However, Mr Putin also said "serious questions" remain about how a ceasefire would work.

Russian forces have been advancing since mid-2024 and control nearly a fifth of Ukraine's territory, three years after sending tens of thousands of troops into its neighbour in a war that US President Donald Trump has said he will halt.

Mr Putin thanked Mr Trump for his efforts to end the war.

"The idea itself is correct, and we certainly support it," Mr Putin said. "But there are issues that we need to discuss. And I think we need to talk to our American colleagues as well," he said.

Mr Putin said he might call Mr Trump to discuss the issue.

"We support the idea of ending this conflict by peaceful means," he said.

Mr Putin donned green camouflage uniform to visit a command post in the Kursk region of western Russia where Ukraine is set to lose its foothold after a major offensive by Russian forces.

Donald Trump said that Mr Putin had made "a very promising statement" on a possible ceasefire, but added that "it wasn't complete".

Mr Trump's comments came after Mr Putin said he backed the idea of a 30-day ceasefire but had serious questions about it that he wanted to discuss with his US counterpart.

"He put out a very promising statement but it wasn't complete," Mr Trump, who was meeting NATO chief Mark Rutte at the White House, told reporters when asked about Mr Putin's remarks.

"I'd love to meet with him or talk to him. But we have to get it (a ceasefire deal) over with fast."

President Trump, whose special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow for talks on Ukraine, added that it would be "a very disappointing moment for the world" if Russia rejects the peace plan.

"A lot of the details of a final agreement have actually been discussed. Now we're going to see if Russia is there and, if not, it will be a very disappointing moment for the world," Mr Trump said.

The US President also gave a glimpse of the negotiations for a longer-term peace after any ceasefire, including what territory Ukraine would have to give up to Russia.

"We have not been working in the dark. We've been discussing with Ukraine land and pieces of land that would be kept and lost," he said.

He added that there was also "a very big power plant involved, who's going to get the power plant?"

Mr Trump did not name the give any specifics, but the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, currently held by Russia, is on the front lines of the fighting. It is Europe's largest nuclear power station.

Negotiations were complex because they were effectively "creating the edge of a country," Mr Trump added.

Russian officials said US national security adviser Mike Waltz had provided details on the ceasefire idea yesterday and Russia was ready to discuss it.

Yuri Ushakov, a former ambassador to Washington who speaks for Mr Putin on major foreign policy issues, told Russian state TV that he had spoken to Mr Waltz yesterday to outline Russia's position on the ceasefire.

"I stated our position that this is nothing other than a temporary respite for the Ukrainian military, nothing more," Mr Ushakov said.

"It gives us nothing. It only gives the Ukrainians an opportunity to regroup, gain strength and to continue the same thing," he later added, saying he felt the proposal needed to be updated to take account of Russia's interests.

Mr Ushakov, who has served alongside Mr Putin in the Kremlin since 2012, stopped short of rejecting the US proposal outright, however, saying the president would likely speak to the media later and outline Russia's position in more detail.

Mr Ushakov said Moscow's goal was "a long-term peaceful settlement that takes into account the legitimate interests of our country and our well-known concerns."

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"It seems to me that no one needs any steps that (merely) imitate peaceful actions in this situation," he said, making clear he thought that the Europeans were trying to put Moscow in a position where it looked, wrongly, as if Russia was against peace.

The remarks from such a senior Kremlin official indicate that Mr Putin, Russia's paramount leader since 1999, thinks that Russia's advances on the battlefield in Ukraine and in western Russia give Moscow a strong hand in peace negotiations.

It was unclear how Mr Trump would react though, after saying yesterday that he hoped Moscow would agree to a ceasefire to end the "bloodbath" and that in his first term he had been tougher on Russia than other presidents.

"I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia," Mr Trump said. "I don't want to do that because I want to get peace. I want to see peace and we'll see. But in a financial sense, yeah, we could do things very bad for Russia. It would be devastating for Russia."

Mr Trump has sought to rebuild relations with Russia to avoid an escalation of the Ukraine war that he says could develop into World War Three, though he has also held out both the threat of more sanctions and the prospect of lifting sanctions if Moscow seeks to end the war.

Kremlin hardball

Just hours after Mr Trump spoke in Washington, the Kremlin published footage of Mr Putin dressed in a green camouflage uniform visiting the Kursk region of western Russia where Ukraine is set to lose its foothold after a major offensive by Russian forces.

Read more:
Pro-Kremlin media outlets oppose ceasefire in Ukraine
What is happening in Kursk and why does it matter?
Latest Ukraine stories

Mr Putin, a former KGB officer, very rarely wears military outfits. The Kremlin said that Russia's supreme commander in chief had deemed it necessary to wear the military fatigues.

The United States agreed on Tuesday to resume weapons supplies and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after Kyiv said at talks in Saudi Arabia that it was ready to support a ceasefire proposal.

But Russia has been advancing on the battlefield despite the hundreds of billions of dollars in US and European aid to Ukraine, whose forces are being pushed out of the western Russian region of Kursk.

Beyond the immediate ceasefire idea, Russia has presented the US with a list of demands for a deal to end its war against Ukraine and reset relations with Washington, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Asked about the Reuters report, Mr Ushakov said Washington knew Russia's position.

In an attempt to divert Russian forces from eastern Ukraine, gain a bargaining chip and embarrass Mr Putin, Ukraine smashed across the border into the Kursk region in August, the biggest attack on Russian territory since the Nazi invasion of 1941.

Ukraine now has a sliver of less than 200sq/km in Kursk, down from 1,300sq/km at the peak of the incursion last summer, according to the Russian military.