According to Ukrainian military analysts, the Kiev, Ukraine – The Kremlin tricked the White House into accepting and promoting views on how the Russian-Ukraine war should end.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “imposed his story” [his US counterpart Donald] Lieutenant General Ihol Romanenko, former deputy director of the Ukrainian military general staff, told Al Jazeera.
“Trump repeatedly tries to implement them, scare them and put pressure on Ukraine, which is already in rather unstable circumstances,” he said of the peace negotiations that appear to have reached a deadlock.
However, some Western observers disagree.
“In this case, Putin played himself,” Nikolei Mitrokin, a researcher at the University of Bremen in Germany, told Al Jazeera.
“The talks have failed because of both sides, but Zelensky has scored more moral points in this competition.
Putin proposed a three-day ceasefire between May 8th and 11th, allowing Russia to celebrate its victory over Nazi Germany in a military parade in Moscow’s Red Square.
Putin will also host Chinese leader Xi Jinping and other helms in the former Soviet Republic, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
The May 9th festival is the focus of the Kremlin political calendar, as it claims that Moscow “liberated” Europe from Nazism, denounces Zelenkie for the slope of European leaders and “neonaji.”
Zelenskyy refuted Putin’s proposal by providing a month of hostilities.
Meanwhile, Putin “showed his feathers as a completely non-constructive character who is only small and capable in the negotiation process,” Mitrokin said.
“The next steps will be a settlement between the US and Ukraine, additional arms supply to Ukraine, and perhaps the new, stronger and more shocking sanctions against Russia’s Trump.”
But there’s a “Fate-Changing Summit in May where Trump and Putin sort it all out,” then there’s room for Trump’s unpredictability.
Trump’s “final offer”
Before his re-election, Trump boasted that the Russian-Ukraine war would end “in 24 hours.”
But even a temporary ceasefire is not on the horizon as more than 100 days after his presidency, Russian missiles and drones continue to thwart Ukrainian cities.
Trump’s peace plan has never been made public, but his “final offer” leaked to the media in late April.
The document reportedly contained a ban on Ukrainian membership in NATO, a “de jure” perception of Washington’s annexed Crimea as part of Russia, and a “effective” perception of the massive clump occupation of Moscow’s four Ukrainian regions.
Russia currently accounts for around 20% of Ukraine’s territory. Kiev has released another 7% since 2022.
The “de facto” perception of the four regions follows Putin’s biggest “concessions.” He agreed not to assert the part that Kiev ruled.
Trump’s “final offer” included a ceasefire and freeze along the current frontline in exchange for the immediate lifting of all US sanctions that have been slammed by Russia since Crimea’s annexation in 2014.
Kiev will also reclaim the nuclear power plant in Zaporidia, a huge nearby dam that was dried up in 2023 by a powerful explosion and depleted in small Russian-occupied areas northeast and south of Ukraine.
Kiev-based analysts call the compromise Trump reasoned as a “snarky” compromise.
“The compromise between the two is between the murder, rape, looting, desire to seize Russia, and the demand that our territory will not be taken away and we will not be killed.”
“We’re already eating these ceasefires and concessions to Russia with a big spoon,” she said, noting a US-mediated debate about a ceasefire between Kiev in southeastern Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists during Trump’s first president.
“It’s not that Zelensky has said or not said. Russia only does exactly what it is allowed, and will not turn a blind eye to that further act of aggression,” she said.
If Kiev and Moscow did not agree to the “final offer,” the White House threatened to leave.
Russia: “Preparing for an active summer attack”
For Ukrainian servicemen who have recovered from surgery, the purpose of Moscow’s delayed tactics is transparent.
“Moscow has been postponed until autumn, preparing for an aggressive summer attack, and is trying to investigate the weaknesses of our defense,” Kiril Sazonov, a political analyst-turned-service soldier fighting in the Donetsk region, wrote in the telegram on Monday.
“President Putin doesn’t want peace at the moment, which is why the discussion is pointless. The White House can get out of them, and nothing will change,” he wrote.
After signing the much-anticipated mineral deal last week, Washington distanced himself from talks.
“It will be up to them to reach an agreement and stop this brutal and brutal conflict,” Vice President JD Vance told Fox News Thursday.
The change in rhetoric means Trump believes the minerals will deal with diplomatic victory ahead of the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Moscow only expects Ukraine’s “complete or partial surrender,” but as Kiev continues to fight, “it’s unreasonable to play a mediator for Trump,” Igar Tishkec told Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, Kremlin supporters remain confused about the fluctuations in Trump’s chameleon mood.
“Are Trump seducing? Are we recovering?” Vladimir Solovyov, a popular television host who once threatened to turn the West into “radiative ash,” asked rhetorically on his Sunday show.
Dressed in a paramilitary overcoat, speaking in an ominous voice, he issued yet another warning to the West.
“We lived to witness a cheerful time when only our parts of the world boasted of psychological health,” he concluded.
Source link
