Putin supports idea of Ukraine ceasefire, but several questions remain unanswered: Kremlin

Blaming the lack of progress on “the Kyiv regime's uncontrollability”, the Kremlin on Monday said that Russian President Vladimir Putin supports the idea of a ceasefire in Ukraine, but several questions remained unanswered.

Last month, Putin had said Russia supported a US proposal for a truce in Ukraine in principle but that fighting could not be paused until a number of crucial conditions were worked out or clarified.

“Putin does support the idea that a ceasefire is needed, but before that, a whole range of questions have to be answered,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

“These questions are hanging in the air; so far, no one has given an answer to them,” he added.

The Russian president has said that any peace agreement must address what Moscow sees as the root causes of the conflict: essentially a tug of war between Russia and the West over Ukraine's future and the post-Soviet enlargement of NATO towards Russia's borders.

Trump’s frustration at slow pace of truce

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump voiced his frustration at the slow pace of truce talks, telling NBC News in March that he was “pissed off” with Putin.

Trump has been pushing for a speedy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine since taking office, but his administration has failed to make a breakthrough despite talks with both sides.

“We're talking to Russia. We'd like them to stop. I don't like the bombing. The bombing goes on and on,” he told reporters on Sunday.

In March, Putin rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional and full ceasefire. Meanwhile, the Kremlin made a US-proposed truce in the Black Sea dependent on the West lifting certain sanctions.

On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said that Trump was not "going to fall into the trap of endless negotiations" with Russia over its three-year-long offensive.

"We will know soon enough, in a matter of weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace or not," he had also said.