Reacting to the proposal for a ceasefire, Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, said today that he had told Washington that it would simply give Ukrainian forces a much-needed battlefield respite. He told state TV: ‘I stated our position that this is nothing other than a temporary respite for the Ukrainian military, nothing more.

U.S. assessments of Vladimir Putin say that Moscow is determined to hold sway over Kyiv, despite ongoing ceasefire talks.