Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has blasted President Putin's unilaterally declared three-day ceasefire set for May 8-10, which correspondents with Russia's Victory Day celebrations, as an "attempt at manipulation."
"Now there's a new attempt at manipulation: for some reason, everyone has to wait until May 8," Zelensky said in his daily address Monday evening. This will mark the 80th anniversary for Moscow's World War 2 commemorations, a major national civic holiday.
Ukraine has instead offered an immediate truce with Russia for "at least 30 days." Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha previously questioned, "If Russia truly wants peace, it must cease fire immediately. Why wait until May 8?"
Moscow has rejected any premature longer term truce ahead of lasting settlement and territorial concessions from the Ukrainian side, fearing that it would just be used to regroup and rearm along the front lines.
Russia has further rejected this new call for a 30-day truce instead of the three day ceasefire. "It’s difficult to agree to such a long-term truce without answers to the questions raised by Putin," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"We haven’t heard the Kyiv regime’s reaction, and it’s unclear whether they plan to join the truce," Peskov said. "Nevertheless, we hope the Russian president’s peace initiative will be appreciated," he added. "The first step is to start the negotiation process — everything else is secondary."
Kiev did appear to observe the prior Easter truce, though each side accused the other of some violations. But it set a precedent which Moscow is hoping to follow on with in pushing the V-Day ceasefire; however, skeptics have said this is really to ensure no disruptions happen at national public commemoration events (such as inbound drones in the Moscow region).
Trump admin officials have called this week "critical" for determining whether lasting peace in Ukraine can be forged:
Rubio said that the coming week will be “very critical” for the White House as it makes a “determination about whether this is an endeavor that we want to continue to be involved in.”
“There are reasons to be optimistic, but there are reasons to be realistic,” Rubio said, adding: “We’re close, but we’re not close enough.”
“Throughout this process, it’s about determining, do both sides really want peace and how close are they or how far apart they are after 90 days of effort here ... that’s what we’re trying to determine this week,” Rubio said of negotiations.
But it's unclear what this ultimatum of sorts (given to both sides?) really means. Will the US stop arming Ukraine if no peace deal is reached? Will more sanctions simply be piled onto Moscow?
Trump is increasingly frustrated with leaders of both Russia and Ukraine: White House.
President Trump has warned the Russians that his patience will soon run thin, amid accusations from hawks that Moscow is simply stalling for the sake of battlefield gains. Putin this month declared the full liberation of Kursk region, leaving Zelensky with no cards to play at all. Trump himself has acknowledged that Zelensky has no real leverage at this point.