BRUSSELS – Russia has offered only a lukewarm and hesitant response to news that Ukraine had accepted a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in the Ukrainian war.

“We do not rule out contacts with representatives of the United States in the coming days” – that was all that Ms Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, was prepared to tell reporters in Moscow in the late hours of March 11, soon after news emerged of Ukraine’s acceptance of a ceasefire.

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