Ukraine president accuses Russian president of pretending to accept proposal before rejecting it later

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian president Vladimir Putin of “manipulative” response to the US proposal for a ceasefire, saying Putin pretended to accept it “at the moment he is, in fact, preparing to reject it.”

“That’s why, in Moscow, they are surrounding the ceasefire idea with such preconditions that it either fails or gets dragged out for as long as possible. Putin does this often — he doesn’t say ‘no’ outright, but he drags things out and makes reasonable solutions impossible,” he said.