BERLIN >> President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Thursday did not rule out a U.S. and Ukrainian proposal for a monthlong ceasefire, but he set down numerous conditions that would most likely delay any truce — or could make one impossible to achieve.

Putin’s comments during a news conference highlighted the balance he was trying to strike, exuding confidence in Russia’s position on the battlefield while seeking to continue talks with the United States and avoid upsetting U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump, having antagonized the country’s allies and realigned American foreign policy in Russia’s favor, has emerged as a key geopolitical partner for Putin.

In sharp remarks later in the day, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said the Russian leader set so many conditions “that nothing will work out at all or that it will not work out for as long as possible.”

Putin’s comments came before he was to meet with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, to discuss the ceasefire proposal that Ukraine had already agreed to. As of early Friday Moscow time, the Kremlin had not commented on how the meeting went. But the Kremlin said Putin had also spoken with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, about Ukraine.

Kremlin, U.S. statements

“The idea itself is correct, and we certainly support it,” Putin told a news conference in Moscow. “But there are issues that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to talk about it with our American colleagues and partners and, perhaps, have a call with President Trump and discuss it with him.”

Trump said there have been “good signals” coming out of Russia and offered guarded optimism about Putin’s statement. He reiterated that he’s ready to speak with Putin and underscored that it was time to end the war.

Putin “put out a very promising statement, but it wasn’t complete,” Trump said Thursday at a start of a meeting at the White House with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “Now we’re going to see whether or not Russia’s there. And if they’re not, it’ll be a very disappointing moment for the world.”Putin’s remarks came as Russia kept up its momentum in the key battle in the Kursk region of Russia, where Moscow’s forces appeared close to pushing Ukraine out of the territory it seized last summer. Such a development would reduce Kyiv’s leverage in future peace talks.

Putin’s conditions

Putin suggested that his conditions would include limits to Ukraine’s ability to mobilize more troops and import weaponry during a ceasefire — restrictions that would put Ukraine at a deeper disadvantage if the fighting restarted.

Putin’s comments were the first about the ceasefire offer that emerged from negotiations between the United States and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia this week. They suggested that the Russian leader viewed that proposal as just a part of a broader negotiation between Washington and Moscow, and that he was eager to show that he was engaging with Trump’s efforts to end the war that Putin began with his full-scale invasion three years ago.

Putin said he might “have a call with President Trump and talk it over with him.” When asked later Thursday if he would speak with the Russian president, Trump said he would “love to meet” and talk with him.

Trump said the United States had discussed with Ukraine possible concessions as part of a peace agreement. “We’ve been discussing with Ukraine land and pieces of land that would be kept and lost, and all of the other elements of a final agreement,” Trump said, adding, “A lot of the details of a final agreement have actually been discussed.”

Putin appears keen to stay on Trump’s good side, given the geopolitical victories that the U.S. president has already delivered for the Kremlin.

But Putin’s comments also showed that the Russian leader saw his forces as having the upper hand on the battlefield and that it would be to Russia’s advantage to draw out the negotiations.

He said Thursday that Russia would continue to insist on a peace deal that addressed the “original causes” of the war — suggesting that his push for major Western concessions, such as a reduction of NATO’s presence in Eastern Europe, hadn’t changed, though it wasn’t clear if he would make them a stipulation for a monthlong ceasefire.

Ukraine’s response

Zelenskyy called Putin’s response to the ceasefire proposal “very predictable, very manipulative.”

“Putin, of course, is afraid to tell President Trump directly that he wants to continue this war, wants to kill Ukrainians,” he said in his evening address.

Putin was straightforward in declaring that a quick truce would be better for Ukraine than for Russia.

“In these conditions, it seems to me that it would be very good for the Ukrainian side if there were a ceasefire, even for 30 days,” Putin said. “And we’re in favor of it. But there are nuances.”

He then listed those “nuances,” starting with the Ukrainian forces still in Kursk. He said that Russia would not allow those troops to peacefully withdraw and that the Ukrainian leadership could instead order them “to simply surrender.”

Putin also suggested he might demand that Ukraine’s Western allies halt arms deliveries, and said it was not clear how the ceasefire would be monitored along a front line of some 700 miles.

“These are all questions demanding very careful study,” he said.

While Putin’s conditions may be impossible for Ukraine to accept, he did not repeat his onerous demand from last year that a ceasefire would depend on Ukraine’s withdrawing from the four Ukrainian regions that Russia had declared as its own but did not fully control.

Still, Dara Massicot, a Russian military specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which is based in Washington, called Putin’s new demands “very dangerous for Ukraine.”

This report contains information from the Associated Press.