Vladimir Putin has ordered a surprise 72-hour ceasefire in Ukraine to mark the 80th anniversary of the Second World War ending and has urged Kyiv to follow suit.
‘Based on humanitarian considerations, the Russian side is declaring a truce during the 80th anniversary of Victory Day,’ the Kremlin announced on Monday, claiming from May 8 through May 10 ‘all hostilities’ would be stopped.
Russia believes that the Ukrainian side should follow this example. In the event of violations of the truce by the Ukrainian side, the Russian armed forces will give an adequate and effective response,’ it added.
The Kremlin announced a similar, 30-hour truce during Easter but while both sides reported a dip in fighting, they accused each other of hundreds of violations.
Putin’s announcement came after US President Donald Trump urged him to ‘stop shooting’ and ‘sign a deal’ to conclude the three-year conflict, which the White House is seeking to end through diplomatic means.
The US has been trying to broker a lasting ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin, despite repeated negotiations between his administration and Russian officials.
Mr Trump is seeking a permanent ceasefire in Ukraine, his spokeswoman said on Monday, indicating the President did not see Putin’s three-day pause as satisfactory.
Ukraine and Russia targeted each other with long-range strikes overnight. The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces downed 119 Ukrainian drones, most of them over Russia’s Bryansk border region.
In Ukraine, air raid sirens rang out across the country on Monday morning. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday that Trump ‘is increasingly frustrated with leaders of both countries’.
‘He wants to see a permanent ceasefire,’ she said. ‘I understand Vladimir Putin, this morning, offered a temporary ceasefire. The president has made it clear he wants to see a permanent ceasefire first to stop the killing, stop the bloodshed.’
The clock is ticking on Washington’s engagement in efforts to resolve Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, which has cost tens of thousands of lives.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that this week would be ‘very critical.’
The US needs to ‘make a determination about whether this is an endeavour that we want to continue to be involved in,’ Rubio said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press.
American military aid has been crucial for Ukraine’s war effort, and further help could be at risk if the Trump administration walks away from attempts to end the war.
Trump said at the weekend he harbours doubts about Putin’s sincerity in pursuing a deal, as Russian forces have continued to strike civilian areas of Ukraine with cruise and ballistic missiles while the talks have proceeded.
But on Friday, Trump described a brokered settlement on the war as ‘close.’
Western European officials have accused the Kremlin of dragging its feet on peace talks so that Russian forces, which are bigger than Ukraine´s and have battlefield momentum, can capture more Ukrainian land.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the war in a phone call with Rubio on Sunday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The two diplomats focused on ‘consolidating the emerging prerequisites for starting negotiations,’ the statement said, without offering further details.
Russia has effectively rejected a US proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting by imposing far-reaching conditions. Ukraine has accepted it, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
A French diplomatic official said at the weekend that Trump, Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed ‘to pursue in the coming days the work of convergence’ to obtain ‘a solid ceasefire’.
The diplomat said a truce is a ‘prior condition for a peace negotiation that respects the interest of Ukraine and the Europeans.’ The official was not authorised to be publicly named in accordance with French presidential policy.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has balked at the possibility of surrendering land to Russia in return for peace, which Washington has indicated could be necessary.
Trump on Sunday said he believes Zelensky is ready to give up Crimea in order to secure peace terms with Russia.
‘Oh, I think so,’ the US president told reporters in New Jersey when asked whether he thought the his Ukrainian counterpart was ready to ‘give up’ the territory.
The comments came after the pair met on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday, their first face-to-face since the disastrous White House summit in February.
Trump said that during their talks at St. Peter’s Basilica they had ‘briefly’ discussed the fate of the Black Sea peninsula. He insisted that Putin should ‘stop shooting’ and sign an agreement to end the grinding war.
Zelensky hailed the recent summit as a ‘good meeting…that has the potential to become historic’, while the Washington said it was ‘very productive’. But the Ukrainian leader has otherwise remained steadfast on his position on Crimea.
Crimea has been a sticking point in negotiations. The strategic peninsula was given to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954 – before Putin illegally annexed it in 2014.
Russia said Monday it was ready to negotiate with Ukraine – but said recognition of Moscow’s claims over five Ukrainian regions including Crimea were ‘imperative’ to resolving the conflict.
Experts warn Trump’s peace plan, which includes recognising Russian authority over Crimea, would require constitutional changes and could amount to treason.
‘It doesn’t mean anything,’ said Oleksandr Merezkho, a lawmaker with Zelensky’s party. ‘We will never recognise Crimea as part of Russia.’
Zelensky echoed the sentiment over the weekend, rejecting any suggestion his country would hand over the region to Moscow.
Speaking to reporters, he said: ‘Our position is unchanged: only the Ukrainian people have the right to decide which territories are Ukrainian.
‘The Constitution of Ukraine states that all temporarily occupied territories are temporarily occupied. They all belong to Ukraine, to the Ukrainian people,’ he said.
‘Ukraine will not legally recognise any temporarily occupied territories. I think this is an absolutely fair position.
‘It is legal not only from the point of view of the Constitution of Ukraine, but also from the point of view of international law.’
As well as undermining Ukrainian sovereignty, potentially amounting to treason and stranding Ukrainian nationals, a concession would set an uneasy precedent for rogue states looking to illegally annex territory through force.
Kyiv has reiterated its desire to end the gruelling war in Ukraine, but warns it must have security guarantees to avoid Russia reopening the conflict at a later date.
Ahead of his February meeting with Trump at the White House, Zelensky said he had shared a list of 25 times Russia had violated ceasefires since the annexation of Crimea.
Trump has, in recent months, taken a slightly harder line on Russia, after Putin was accused of breaching agreed ceasefires and attacking civilian targets.
A key point of leverage for Ukraine could be a deal with Washington that grants access to Ukraine’s critical mineral wealth.
Ukraine and the US have made progress on a mineral agreement, with both sides agreeing that American aid provided so far to Kyiv will not be taken into account under the terms of the deal, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Sunday.
‘We have good progress,’ he said after talks with US Treasury Under Secretary Scott Bessent in Washington. ‘The main thing is that we clearly defined our red lines: The agreement must comply with Ukraine’s Constitution, legislation, and European commitments, and must be ratified by Parliament.’
The war that broke out after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022 has developed a significant international dimension, further complicating negotiations.
Putin on Monday thanked North Korea for sending what the US estimates are thousands of troops to help defeat Ukraine, as well as allegedly supplying artillery ammunition.
Iran has also helped Russia in the war, with Shahed drones, and China has sold Russia machinery and microelectronics that Moscow can use to make weapons, Western officials say.
The US and Europe have been Kyiv’s biggest backers.
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