Putin agrees fighting in Ukraine must end but says any plan must lead to ‘enduring peace’

Russian President Vladimir Putin says fighting must end in Ukraine, but adds a ceasefire should lead to “enduring peace and remove underlying causes of this crisis.”

He says the idea of a ceasefire is “good and we absolutely support it but there are issues that we need to discuss.”

The US and Ukraine have said the ball is now “in Russia’s court”, but Putin has just tried to push the ball back into theirs, writes BBC Monitoring’s Vitaliy Shevchenko.

The Russian president was speaking as Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff is in Moscow ahead of US-Russia talks on a 30-day ceasefire proposal.

Earlier, the Kremlin said it was in the final stage of the operation to drive Ukraine from territory it seized in Kursk.