Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks to Ukrainian Muslim service members before sharing an iftar with them, a meal to break their fast at sunset, during the holy month of Ramadan, in a mosque in Kyiv, Ukraine March 13, 2025. REUTERS/Alina Smutko
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Russia's Vladimir Putin is preparing a rejection of a ceasefire proposal, but is scared to say this directly to U.S. President Donald Trump.
Zelenskiy, speaking in his evening address, said Russia is setting conditions on a ceasefire in order to delay it, or make it not happen at all.
"He is in fact preparing a rejection at present, because Putin is of course scared to tell President Trump that he wants to continue this war, that he wants to kill Ukrainians," Zelenskiy said.
"That's why in Moscow they are imposing upon the idea of a ceasefire these conditions, so that nothing happens at all, or so that it cannot happen for as long as possible."
Zelenskiy said Washington had expressed readiness to organise control and verification of the ceasefire.
"This is possible to ensure, with America's possibilities, and Europe's possibilities."
Zelenskiy said a ceasefire would give time "to prepare answers to all questions regarding long-term security and a real, reliable peace, and put on the table a plan to end the war."
(Reporting by Max Hunder; Editing by Leslie Adler and Cynthia Osterman)
