Russia is ready to declare an immediate ceasefire with Ukraine if Kiev withdraws its troops from the contested regions, Vladimir Putin says

Hostilities would stop immediately should Kiev opt to withdraw its troops from the contested territories, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

The president touched upon the matter during a press conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Thursday. Putin visited the Kyrgyz capital for a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a regional alliance bringing together a handful of post-Soviet nations.

Putin reiterated Moscow's long-standing position that an unconditional ceasefire with Ukraine is out of the question. 

"We're still receiving calls for a cessation of hostilities here, there, and there. Ukrainian troops will withdraw from the territories they occupy, and then the hostilities will cease. If they don't withdraw, we'll achieve this through military means," the president stated without explicitly naming the territories in question.

Moscow has ruled out freezing the conflict and entering an unconditional ceasefire, arguing that this would merely allow Ukraine and its Western backers to win time and replenish Kiev's battered military with both personnel and weaponry. At the same time, Russia has repeatedly stated its readiness to resolve the hostilities through diplomacy.  

Putin first outlined Moscow's vision of how a ceasefire could work last summer, stating Russia would immediately cease the hostilities if Kiev withdrew from all formerly Ukrainian territories in the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions. All four regions joined Russia in a series of referendums in late 2022 that passed with overwhelming support.  

Earlier this year, Russia said it had liberated the entire territory of the Lugansk People's Republic. The country's troops have also been actively advancing in its sister republic of Donetsk and, as of late, in Zaporozhye and the neighboring Ukrainian region of Dnepropetrovsk.