Kremlin Says It's Waiting For Details Of Ukraine Cease-Fire Deal

Russia reacted cautiously to a proposed cease-fire agreement announced by Ukrainian and US negotiators and held out the possibility of a phone call between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in the coming days.

Speaking a day after the deal was announced, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on March 12 that Russian officials were "carefully studying" the announcement but waiting to hear more details from US negotiators before commenting further.

Meanwhile, reaction on the streets of Moscow was mixed, with one man saying that "agreeing to a truce now, when the enemy is weakened, is completely inappropriate and wrong."

But others welcomed the news. "We just want this to end as soon as possible so that people stop dying," said one woman in the Russian capital. "So many have already perished."

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Russians React With Caution To Cease-Fire Proposal With Ukraine

The agreement, reached in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on March 11 specifically called for a 30-day cease-fire between Kyiv and Moscow, though it noted that would be subject to Russia's approval. It also said Washington had agreed to resume sharing intelligence with Ukrainian planners and shipments of weapons and equipment.

The US suspension of weapons and intelligence sharing with Kyiv came after a contentious meeting at the White House on February 28 in which Trump and US Vice President JD Vance berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"We'll take this offer now to the Russians, and we hope that they'll say yes, that they'll say yes to peace," Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Jeddah. "The ball is now in their court."

US and Ukrainian negotiators, at the beginning of negotiations, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on March 11

Mike Waltz, the White House national-security adviser, was scheduled to meet his Russian counterpart this week, and Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff also planned to travel to Moscow, possibly to meet Putin.

Russia's Foreign Ministry made no comment, though a spokeswoman said talks with US representatives were possible in the coming days.

Kremlin-linked commentators, meanwhile, portrayed the agreement as a positive outcome for Russia. Konstantin Kosachev, a lawmaker in Russia's upper house of parliament, asserted that the results of the talks were strictly American, and argued they showed Zelenskyy’s weakness.

"Russia is advancing, and therefore it will be different with Russia," he said in a Telegram post.

"Any agreements (with all understanding of the need for compromise) will be on our terms, not American," he said. "And this is not boasting, but an understanding that real agreements are still being written there, on the front line. Which Washington should also understand."

"The most important thing is not to interfere with Russian-American negotiations with third-party comments. Let the negotiators work," he wrote. "Victory will be ours."

Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, said Russian officials might respond with a counteroffer: a suspension on Western weapons supplies to Kyiv for the same 30-day period, from the United States and from European allies as well.

"Europe must support the truce in Ukraine not with words, but with deeds -- an embargo on arms supplies to the conflict zone is a well-known formula in diplomacy," he said in a post to Telegram.

Though Washington is the biggest single supplier of weaponry to Ukraine, European allies collectively provide as much weapons and other equipment.