{"id":84429,"date":"2025-05-08T11:01:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T11:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/84429\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T11:01:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T11:01:11","slug":"is-russias-putin-playing-trump-over-ukraine-peace-plan-or-himself-russia-ukraine-war-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/84429\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Russia\u2019s Putin playing Trump over Ukraine peace plan, or himself? | Russia-Ukraine war News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyiv, Ukraine \u2013<\/strong> The Kremlin duped the White House into accepting and promoting its view on how the Russia-Ukraine war should end, according to a Ukrainian military analyst.<\/p>\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin \u201cimposed his narratives on [his US counterpart Donald] Trump,\u201d Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy head of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump repeats them, tries to implement them, frightens and pressures Ukraine that already is in a pretty precarious situation,\u201d he said about the peace talks that seem to have reached an impasse.<\/p>\n

But some Western observers disagree.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, Putin played himself,\u201d Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher with Germany\u2019s Bremen University, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe talks failed because of both sides, but Zelenskyy scored more moral points in this competition, because he proposed a more significant version of a truce, Trump is satisfied with him in general,\u201d Mitrokhin said.<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVE-WHO(Al Jazeera)<\/p>\n

Putin suggested a three-day ceasefire<\/a> between May 8 and 11 so that Russia could celebrate its victory over Nazi Germany with a military parade on Moscow\u2019s Red Square.<\/p>\n

Putin also plans to host Chinese leader Xi Jinping and other helmsmen from former Soviet republics, Eastern Europe and Latin America.<\/p>\n

The May 9 festivities are a focal point of the Kremlin\u2019s political calendar as Moscow claims to have \u201cliberated\u201d Europe from Nazism \u2013 and accuses some European leaders, as well as Zelenskyy, of \u201cneo-Nazi\u201d leanings.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy retorted to Putin\u2019s proposal by offering a monthlong cessation of hostilities.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Putin \u201cshowed his feathers as a totally non-constructive character capable only of tiny pittances in the negotiation process\u201d, Mitrokhin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next step would be a rapprochement between the United States and Ukraine, additional arms supplies to Ukraine, and, probably, new, stronger and more shocking sanctions against Russia a la Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is, however, room for Trump\u2019s unpredictability if there is a \u201cdestiny-changing summit in May, when Trump and Putin will sort it all out,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s \u2018final offer\u2019<\/p>\n

Before his re-election, Trump boasted he would end the Russia-Ukraine war \u201cin 24 hours\u201d.<\/p>\n

But more than 100 days into his presidency, even a temporary ceasefire is not on the horizon as Russian missiles and drones keep pummelling Ukrainian cities.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s peace plan has never been made public, but his \u201cfinal offer\u201d leaked to the press in late April largely benefits Moscow and leaves Kyiv with no security guarantees from Washington.<\/p>\n

The document reportedly included a ban on Ukraine\u2019s membership in NATO, Washington\u2019s \u201cde jure\u201d recognition of annexed Crimea as part of Russia and a \u201cde facto\u201d recognition of Moscow\u2019s occupation of large chunks of four Ukrainian regions.<\/p>\n

Russia currently occupies some 20 percent of Ukraine\u2019s territory; Kyiv has liberated seven more percent since 2022.<\/p>\n

The \u201cde facto\u201d recognition of the four regions follows Putin\u2019s largest \u201cconcession\u201d so far \u2013 he agreed not to claim the Kyiv-controlled parts of them.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s \u201cfinal offer\u201d also included a ceasefire and a freeze along the current front lines in return for the immediate lifting of all US sanctions slapped on Russia since Crimea\u2019s 2014 annexation.<\/p>\n

Kyiv also gets back the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe\u2019s largest, a giant nearby dam that was bled dry by a powerful explosion in 2023, and small Russian-occupied areas in Ukraine\u2019s northeast and south.<\/p>\n

A Kyiv-based analyst called the Trump-proposed compromises \u201cdisgusting\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA compromise between what and what? Between Russia\u2019s desire to kill, rape<\/a>, loot, seize territories, and our demands that our territories are not taken away and we are not killed? There\u2019s no room for compromise,\u201d Maria Kucherenko, an expert with the Come Back Alive think tank, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have already eaten these ceasefires and concessions to Russia with a big spoon,\u201d she said, referring the US-mediated discussions of a ceasefire between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists in southeastern Ukraine during Trump\u2019s first presidency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is not what Zelenskyy says or doesn\u2019t say. The thing is that Russia will only do exactly what it is allowed to do. And turning a blind eye to its further acts of aggression will not do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The White House threatened to walk away if Kyiv and Moscow didn\u2019t agree to the \u201cfinal offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia \u2018getting ready for an active summer offence\u2019<\/p>\n

To a Ukrainian serviceman recovering from surgery, the aim of Moscow\u2019s delay tactic is crystal clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoscow postponed talks until the fall and is getting ready for an active summer offence, trying to probe weak spots in our defence,\u201d Kirill Sazonov, a political analyst-turned serviceman fighting in the Donetsk region, wrote on Telegram on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently, Putin doesn\u2019t want peace and that\u2019s why the talks make no sense. The White House can get out of them \u2013 and nothing will change at all,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

After signing the long-awaited minerals deal last week, Washington distanced itself from the talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be up to them to come to an agreement and stop this brutal, brutal conflict,\u201d Vice President J D Vance told Fox News on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The change of rhetoric means that Trump considers the minerals deal<\/a> a diplomatic victory ahead of his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to a Kyiv-based analyst.<\/p>\n

Moscow expects only a \u201cfull or partial capitulation\u201d of Ukraine, but as Kyiv keeps fighting, for Trump, \u201cit\u2019s irrational to play a middleman,\u201d Igar Tyshkevych told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Kremlin\u2019s backers remain puzzled about Trump\u2019s chameleonic mood swings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs the Trump temptation over? Are we recovering?\u201d Vladimir Solovyov, a popular television host who once threatened to turn the West into \u201cradioactive ashes\u201d, asked rhetorically during his Sunday show.<\/p>\n

Clad in a quasi-military overcoat and speaking in an ominous voice, he uttered yet another warning to the West: \u201cWe don\u2019t need your love, we need your fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lived to witness a merry time, when only our part of the world boasts psychological health,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyiv, Ukraine \u2013 The Kremlin duped the White House into accepting and promoting its view on how the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[299,12,332,7661,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-84429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-europe","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-russia","11":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","12":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114471874300265244","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}