BERLIN (The New York Times News Service)

President Vladimir Putin of Russia said Thursday that he was open to the idea of a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine but that a number of "questions” must still be resolved.

His remarks, at a news conference in Moscow, signaled he was in no hurry to go along with a truce and came as U.S. officials were in Russia to discuss the ceasefire proposal that Ukraine has already agreed to.

"The idea itself is the right one, and we support it,” Putin said. "But there are questions that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to talk them through with our American colleagues and partners.”

Those questions, Putin said, included the fate of Ukraine’s forces occupying part of Russia’s Kursk region, whether Ukraine would be able to continue receiving arms shipments during the 30-day truce, and how the ceasefire would be monitored and enforced.

It was the first time that Putin had publicly addressed the ceasefire offer. He is expected to meet with President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, later Thursday - and Putin said he may soon speak with Trump.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, had said earlier that Russia would only respond to the ceasefire proposal after talks with the United States in which U.S. officials would lay out that plan in more detail.

"After we receive this information - not through the press but through bilateral dialogue - then the time will come for thinking it over and formulating a position,” Peskov said.