Russia says proposed truce would merely give relief to Ukraine's military

Russian president Vladimir Putin

Russian president Vladimir Putin's top foreign policy aide said on Thursday that he had told Washington that a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the United States to pause the war in Ukraine would simply give Kyiv's forces a respite.

Russia's advances along the front in recent months and US president Donald Trump's attempt to strike a peace deal to end the three-year-old conflict in Ukraine have raised fears that Kyiv, which was backed by the West, could lose the war.