The war aims that Putin set out to achieve have simply not been achieved at the moment. There’s not enough there for him to walk away and claim any form of victory,
A ceasefire can’t be based only on political statements,
Putin is very dangerous when he’s directly talking to Trump,
Historians underestimate the role of human exhaustion in making historical decisions,
Russians don’t want a ceasefire unconditionally – they have been saying it for a long time,
They are not saying it explicitly, but the idea is that with Ukraine as it is now, with Zelenskyy in power, there won’t be a deal, there will be nothing. Ukraine must admit it has lost the war, it has no chances to reverse the military situation, and that the only way to get out is to start talking to Russians about Moscow’s peace terms,
It may not be 30 days; it could take a bit longer. However, it is crucial that a specific time frame is set in the ceasefire agreement. This will limit the chances for the Russians to turn it into an endless frozen conflict,
But we understand that there will be many different 'buts' to put Ukraine in a weaker situation. And America's position is critical here. If the ceasefire is complete, then without any ‘buts’. Everyone's position should be clear, transparent, truthful, without losing the dignity of the parties,
There were no additional conditions at the meeting in Saudi Arabia. Everyone was thrilled that, first of all, the two countries were together, which was a serious step forward. Second, that Ukraine had taken such a serious diplomatic step. And everyone was also pleased. Let America now make Putin take the first step. Then we will discuss all the other steps,
We agree with the proposals to halt the fighting, but we proceed from the assumption that the ceasefire should lead to lasting peace and remove the root causes of the crisis
The idea itself is correct, and we
We must move toward peace, toward security guarantees, and we need to free our people. We are determined to work as quickly as possible with our partners. The key factor is our partners' ability to ensure Russia's readiness not to deceive but to genuinely end the war. Because right now, Russian strikes have not stopped."
We’ll know a little bit more on Monday, hopefully, good."
Russia is aiming for a ceasefire that would lead directly to peace talks,
Putin wants Trump to believe that Putin is interested in a deal,
Trump has few options to counter either a Russian rejection or protracted feigned compliance. The most effective method will be the carrot rather than the stick: the temptation of a major deal."
The US may well agree to the demand for an arms embargo, because Trump doesn't want to spend any more American money on Ukraine,
Despite everything we're hearing from Washington, Ukraine does actually still hold a lot of trump cards,
He rejected this proposal for an unconditional ceasefire, he wants conditional, he wants a ceasefire on his terms.”
Absent Trump, I don’t think you would see this reorientation of the Republican party. Even with Trump a lot of Republicans, especially on Capitol Hill, are very uneasy about it and don’t like what Trump is doing but they’re afraid to speak out.”