Kremlin Says Russia Seeks Lasting Peace, Not Truce, in Ukraine

The gap here is definitional, not tactical: Kyiv frames a 60-day ceasefire as the mechanism to unlock elections, while Moscow rejects any pause that isn't tied to a durable settlement. That mismatch matters because it shifts the burden of proof onto what "long-term peace" would actually require — terms, sequencing, and monitoring — none of which either side has spelled out. Whether a short truce can function as a confidence-building step, or is treated as a strategic trap, is the open question.