A group of Palestinians walks among the ruins of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, 19 January 2025. Photo: EPA / Atef Safadi
The Kremlin has tentatively welcomed the US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza announced on Thursday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky contrasted the truce agreement between Israel and Hamas with the faltering peace process in Ukraine.
Speaking at the Russia-Central Asia summit in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe on Thursday, Vladimir Putin said Russia had “almost immediately” supported US President Donald Trump’s proposals for peace in the region and maintained that “problems in the Middle East can only be resolved through political and diplomatic means.”
Moscow hoped that the ceasefire deal’s provisions — which include an immediate end to hostilities and the withdrawal of the Israel Defence Forces from parts of the Gaza Strip and the return of all hostages held by Hamas to Israel in return for the release of almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, and a surge in humanitarian aid to Gaza — would be “implemented in practice” as soon as possible, Putin said.
“I must say that we are not only watching closely, but also trying, together with our partners in the Middle East, to contribute to this settlement”, the Russian leader added, stressing that the creation of an independent Palestinian state was the “main, indispensable condition” for lasting peace in the region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also welcomed the ceasefire announcement, saying in his nightly address to Ukrainians on Thursday that Kyiv supported “all global diplomatic efforts aimed at achieving peace in the Middle East”, while lamenting Russia’s refusal to engage in further peace talks with Ukraine.
“Even Hamas shows deal-making acumen, but not Putin”, Zelensky said, adding that Kyiv expected the same “just pressure on Russia” from the US and its allies to bring peace to Ukraine as well.
Earlier on Thursday, the Ukrainian president told journalists that Kyiv would nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize if he secured a similar ceasefire in Ukraine.
“The plan to end the war will not be easy, but it is definitely the way forward. And if Trump gives the world, and above all Ukrainians, the opportunity for such a ceasefire, then yes, he should be nominated for the Nobel Prize”, Zelensky said. “We will nominate him from Ukraine”.
Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, who said on Friday that Moscow would support Trump’s Nobel nomination for his role in securing the Gaza ceasefire, on Thursday denied a suggestion by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov that “momentum” from the August summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska had been “exhausted” and that the process for peace in Ukraine had stalled.
The two leaders had agreed on some “very significant elements that could form the basis for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine”, Ushakov said, with contacts between Washington and Moscow “ongoing” since their meeting.
Trump, who pledged on the campaign trail last year to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office, earlier this week expressed his surprise at how difficult the conflict had been to resolve, saying he thought it would be an “easy one to settle” but that it had proven “tougher than the Middle East”.