The Kremlin announced on Monday its decision to suspend “all military actions” from midnight May 8 to midnight May 10 to coincide with World War II Victory Day commemorations. From Putin’s perspective, he does not want the 80th anniversary celebrations — in which he’ll be joined by Chinese leader Xi Jinping — to potentially be impacted by Ukrainian attacks.
To Zelensky, the leader of an invaded country facing daily attacks on civilian targets, he doesn’t want to wait until May 8 for the cessation of attacks, nor does he want them to resume days later after Putin’s pause ends. The Ukrainian leader also has a reason not to trust Putin’s word, given his repeated decisions to break previous agreements including during a short Easter truce that took place earlier this month, in which he said Russian forces broke the 30-hour pause nearly 3,000 times.
“Back on March 11, we responded positively to the American proposal for a full ceasefire. We made our own proposal to Russia – bilaterally – to halt strikes at least on civilian targets, at the very least,” Zelensky said during his nightly announcement on Monday. “We also proposed making the Easter ceasefire full and extending it for thirty days. Russia has consistently rejected everything and continues to manipulate the world, trying to deceive the United States.”
The Trump administration is trying its best to convince both Russia and Ukraine to end the war, though they have been unable to get Moscow to agree to a deal. The president has said himself that he’s getting frustrated with a lack of progress and U.S. officials have threatened they could walk away from their mediating efforts.
“Now, yet again, another attempt at manipulation: for some reason, everyone is supposed to wait until May 8 before ceasing fire – just to provide Putin with silence for his parade. We value human lives, not parades,” he added. “That’s why we believe – and the world believes – that there is no reason to wait until May 8. The ceasefire should not be just for a few days, only to return to killing afterward.”
The administration has pushed Ukraine to make concessions to get the war ended, while Moscow continues to ask for more.
In a recent interview, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov laid out several conditions required to get them to agree to a deal and they include: the international community recognizing Russian-annexed Ukrainian territory as its own, canceling arrest warrants for Russian officials — Putin was among a handful of Russians charged by the International Criminal Court — and the “de-Nazifying” of Ukraine, which is likely a reference to Zelensky.
TRUMP’S DIPLOMATIC OVERTURES TO PUTIN FALL ON DEAF EARS
U.S. officials have indicated that a deal would likely result in Ukraine losing territory, and President Trump has said Ukraine is not getting an offer to join the NATO alliance — even though NATO has already said Ukraine was on the “irreversible” path to membership.
It’s unclear what the U.S. could do to push Moscow to agree to end the war. One possible option is additional sanctions, though Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned last week that such a decision would likely further sour U.S.-Russian relations.
