Following Russia’s initial rejection of a U.S.-brokered 30-day ceasefire of its war with Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested Thursday that he may be open to a peace agreement provided he can have direct talks with the Trump administration.

The 30-day ceasefire agreement calls for “opening negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow on halting the war,” which the U.S. announced would lift the pause on military aid and intelligence with Ukraine if the country agreed to the ceasefire. It also calls for “the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of civilian detainees, and the return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children to Russia.” After Ukraine accepted the deal, Russian negotiator Yuri Ushakov dismissed it early Thursday, remarking, “This is nothing other than a temporary time-out for Ukrainian soldiers, nothing more. Our goal is a long-term peaceful resolution. Steps that imitate peaceful actions are not needed.”

But Russia’s position appeared to shift later in the day when reports surfaced quoting Putin stating that he was open to a negotiated ceasefire. “The idea [of a ceasefire] itself is correct, and we are certainly supporting it, but there are issues that need to be discussed,” he said. “I think that we need to talk to our American colleagues and partners. Maybe call President Trump and discuss it together. But we support the very idea of ending this conflict through peaceful means. … We are in favor of it, but there are nuances.”

Putin added that a deal must “proceed from the fact that this cessation should be such that it would lead to long-term peace and eliminate the root causes of this crisis.”

For his part, President Donald Trump expressed skepticism in response to Putin’s remarks. “[T]hat doesn’t mean anything until we hear what the final outcome is,” he said during a press briefing. “Hopefully, they all want to end this nightmare.” Previously, Trump declared that he was “strongly considering large-scale sanctions” and tariffs on Russia until Putin agreed to a peace deal. It remains to be seen if the two countries can negotiate an agreement as U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow Thursday for ceasefire talks.

In comments to The Washington Stand, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Bob Maginnis, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for National Security, noted that Putin is facing internal pressures to end the conflict.

“Putin is already under significant pressure due to the war,” he explained. “That nation spends 40% of all public funds on the war, and the Kremlin has tolerated very high casualties, which has stirred emotions at home. Meanwhile, Russian inflation is 9.5%, and interest rates are near records at 21%.” 

Maginnis went on to detail some of Putin’s past demands for a peace deal. “He insists Ukraine renounce ever joining NATO, cut the size of its army, and abandon sovereignty over the eastern provinces now mostly occupied by Russians. He also insists that the West must unfreeze its overseas assets, lift all economic sanctions, halt security assistance for Ukraine, and any peacekeepers must be from neutral parties — no NATO troops. Putin will also insist that he and his military officials avoid accountability for war crimes.”

“Long term,” Maginnis continued, “Putin still wants to subjugate Ukraine, weaken the western security architecture (especially NATO), and ultimately establish a multipolar world dominated by authoritarian regimes like Russia and China.”

Maginnis further predicted that Putin “will link any deal to favorable conditions that protect Moscow’s interests. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect the meetings this week to just be the beginning of a series of protracted engagements. Meanwhile, the fighting is likely to continue.”

As to what the long-term outlook on the war is if Russia refuses to agree to a ceasefire, experts like Regent University Professor A.J. Nolte say that Europe must significantly step up its military support, particularly Germany.

“Are they willing to take the actions necessary to make sure that containment happens?” he asked during a recent “Outstanding” podcast. “I think it’s fair for Trump to point out that there was a lot of ‘Sturm und Drang’ from the Germans, and I use that term deliberately about how they were going to rearm, and they were going to meet their defense agreements and all this stuff when the invasion happened. And they’ve done nothing since then, they’ve done absolutely nothing.”

A recent analysis by The Wall Street Journal suggests that a combined European military force would be a formidable foe for Putin. Data indicates that Europe’s combined active military personnel totals 1.97 million, compared to Russia’s 1.34 million, with Europe’s total number of armored vehicles vastly outnumbering Russia’s at 32,700 to 10,700. Europe also currently has almost double the amount of self-propelled artillery and combat planes that Russia possesses.

“[T]he Western Europeans have a lot to answer for in this situation,” Nolte argued. “… Partially, that’s a result of them making themselves more dependent on new Russian natural gas because of some of the insane green policies that Germany has pursued. So there needs to be a pivot. … [W]e need to export [natural gas] to them, so that [they]’re less susceptible to that Russian pressure from the oil weapon. I think there’s economic factors that could limit Putin’s ability. If he doesn’t have enough money to pay for an invasion, he can’t invade. And so that needs to be part of the strategy as well.”