With Ukraine signed up to the US ceasefire plan, the pressure is now on the Kremlin to decide if it will also accept President Trump’s proposals to bring the Ukraine war to a halt, albeit a temporary one.

Ukraine agreeing to an interim ceasefire along the sprawling 1,200 kilometre frontline Tuesday was hailed as a major step toward peace, but Russia has yet to respond to the U.S. proposal and reaching an agreement will be a challenge,

Russia’s leader recently rejected the idea of an interim truce in Ukraine. But he wants to maintain his relationship with President Trump.

Russia has repeatedly painted modern Ukraine as a Nazi state, in a crass distortion of history. Putin had already seized Ukraine's Crimean peninsula eight years earlier, after a revolution that ousted Ukraine's pro-Russian president and replaced him with a more pro-Western government.

Ukraine has agreed to a 30-day ceasefire proposal put forward by the US, a move that could pause the three-year war with Russia if Moscow reciprocates. The agreement was reached during high-stakes negotiations in Saudi Arabia between US and Ukrainian officials,

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly ruled out a temporary break in hostilities, saying it would only benefit Ukraine and its Western allies by letting them replenish their arsenals. He has insisted Moscow wants a comprehensive agreement that would ensure a lasting settlement.

The Kremlin stated that it's waiting for the United States to inform it of the proposals discussed with Ukraine on Tuesday. According to Reuters, "it's unlikely that Putin will agree to a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine".

COMMENT: As the Russian leader says the US-brokered truce is 'difficult to accept', a pause in fighting could be exactly what he needs to regroup – and to shatter the wartime solidarity keeping Ukrainian society united against his invading forces,

S.D., discusses whether President Donald Trump can get Russia's Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire deal with Ukraine on 'Varney & Co.'