Did a video circulating on social media show Russian President Vladimir Putin making a public statement about Russia's terms for a ceasefire in Ukraine in March 2025? No, that's not true: The clip had been online for nine months. It showed Putin's remarks from June 2024.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on March 12, 2025. It opened:
🚨 Putin outlines terms for ceasefire
- Ukraine must withdraw troops from Donetsk & Lugansk
- Ukraine must formally abolish plans to join NATO
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Mar 13 15:13:49 2025 UTC)
The shared video, however, was not recent in March 2025.
Putin spoke about these specific Russia's demands in June 2024. At the time, it was covered by multiple media outlets, including the Guardian (archived here), the BBC (archived here), Meduza (archived here), Ukrainian news agency Unian (archived here) and Russian government-funded TASS (archived here).
In March 2025, the video resurfaced shortly after the U.S. announced resuming military aid to Ukraine (archived here) following another round of talks between the two countries. During the meeting in Saudi Arabia (archived here), Ukraine agreed to a 30-day ceasefire if Russia agrees to it as well (archived here).
On March 12, 2025, Putin appeared on cameras wearing a military uniform while his aide, Yuri Ushakov, said (archived here) on Russian national TV that Russia is interested in the permanent resolution of the situation, not a temporary ceasefire.
On March 13, 2025. Reuters (archived here) reported that the Kremlin outlined its terms. While the agency's sources said they were similar to old ones, the list wasn't made public, as of this writing.
On the same day, Putin said (archived here) that the Kremlin generally supports the idea of the proposed 30-day ceasefire but added he sees issues with the plan he wants to discuss.
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Other Lead Stories fact checks concerning the Russian-Ukrainian are here.
