President Donald Trump and European leaders cautiously welcomed Russia’s President Vladimir Putin saying he accepted the basic precepts of a ceasefire, but Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky warns Moscow demanding concessions is a “predictable” bid to derail talks altogether.
On Thursday, a delegation of American negotiators had talks in Moscow, Russia, in hope of agreeing step one of President Trump’s Ukraine peace plan, a 30-day ceasefire. President Putin said Russia supports the notion in general terms, but said “there are issues that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to discuss it with our American colleagues and partners” before actually agreeing.
In consequence, the Russian position remained that as it had been before the talks, that Moscow is ready for peace but only on its own terms. This was a “highly predictable” outcome, Ukraine’s Zelensky warned on Thursday night, stating Putin’s encouraging-sounding but hollow remarks were actually intended to string out talks to keep the war going, to Russia’s benefit.
Zelensky said: “We have all heard from Russia Putin’s highly predictable and manipulative words in response to the idea of a ceasefire on the front lines – at this moment he is, in fact, preparing to reject it. Of course, Putin is afraid to tell President Trump directly that he wants to continue this war and keep killing Ukrainians.”
Putin is to achieve this by adding more and more preconditions to the ceasefire until it becomes impossible to agree and talks collapse, Zelensky claimed, adding: “Putin does this often – he doesn’t say ‘no’ outright, but he drags things out and makes reasonable solutions impossible. We see this as yet another round of Russian manipulation.”
Zelensky’s assertions are certainly based in fact, even if Ukraine has been guilty of much of the same in the past. A top aide to President Putin talked down the ceasefire agreement on Thursday before talks had even started, for instance, calling them too favourable to Kyiv and in need of re-negotiating. It was alleged the main purpose of any ceasefire would be to allow Ukraine time to regroup forces and fight on later with greater strength, for instance. Again, this is an allegation which can be made both ways, and Ukraine says much the same about Moscow in return.
Ukraine, for its part, has also dragged out talks by attempting to add preconditions to agreements to strengthen its own bargaining positions before getting to the negotiating table. A bid to force the United States into making absolute security guarantees to Ukraine before signing President Trump’s minerals deal ended in disaster last month, for instance, when Zelensky tried to bounce Trump into an agreement before the television cameras at the Oval Office.
Ukraine subsequently relented and agreed to come to the table without those agreements, but the attempt delayed proceedings for days and saw Ukraine’s armed forces deprived of materiel and intelligence support from the United States in the meanwhile.
Now Ukraine has agreed to the precepts of Trump’s ceasefire proposal and the ball is, as has been expressed, “in Russia’s court”, Zelensky makes much of Kyiv’s willingness to absolutely cooperate with Washington, even if this wasn’t the case until days ago. He said overnight: “Ukraine is ready to work as quickly and constructively as possible… We are not setting conditions that complicate the process – Russia is.
“As we have always said, the only one stalling, the only one being unconstructive, is Russia. They need this war. Putin has stolen years of peace and continues this war day after day. Now is the time to increase pressure on him. Sanctions must be applied – ones that will work”.
These points were underlined by the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who presumably will shortly go from negotiating peace obliquely through the United States to possibly sitting across the table from his Russian counterpart. He said, after Zelensky: “This is the difference. Ukraine said ‘yes’ to US ceasefire proposal. Because Ukraine wants peace. Putin, rather than saying ‘yes’, puts forward various conditions. Ukraine seeks an end to the war. Putin seeks to continue the war. The rest of his words are just a smokescreen”.
U.S. President Trump signalled his awareness of Russia’s words being far short of an actual agreement, calling Putin’s remarks incomplete. He looked forward to speaking to Putin himself, however, saying a deal has to be struck fast to save lives.
That more advanced discussions beyond the ceasefire and actually looking at the terms of a future peace deal are also underway, President Trump revealed, as he spoke from the Oval Office. One of the thorniest issues facing negotiators, he said: “We’ve been discussing with Ukraine land and pieces of land that would be kept and lost, and all of the other elements of a final agreement”.
European leaders also cautiously welcomed Putin’s remarks, with the British Prime Minister calling it a “remarkable breakthrough”, Polish Prime Minister Tusk saying it is a “crucial step towards peace”, and the European Union saying it now wants to be involved in negotiations, having been basically shut out so far.
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