What Trump expects from Putin - Zelenskyy's Office lists three conditions
Photo: US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin (Getty Images)
Russian leader Vladimir Putin must take three key steps. Only after that can there be confidence that he is ready for a ceasefire, stated Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, in a comment to the YouTube channel of RBC-Ukraine.
According to the advisor, the Russian leader must take several actions to begin a real ceasefire with Ukraine. Specifically, he must stop:
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the massive strikes on civilian populations,
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large-scale missile and drone attacks on Ukraine,
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active combat along the direct line of contact.
"These are the three actions that will clearly show that Putin is ready, first, to move toward regulating the war as such, meaning regulation in the political sense; second, to engage in realistic negotiations; and third, to end the escalation phase," Podolyak said.
At the same time, he noted that, in his opinion, Putin believed that events in the Middle East would open a window of opportunity for him to launch massive strikes against Ukrainian civilians, that no one would pay attention or care that he was destroying residential neighborhoods in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
"But no, it's obvious what Putin is doing, and I believe Trump understands this as well," the advisor to the Presidential Office noted.
Podolyak also remarked that Russia is not a rational country.
"Russia will continue to believe, until it begins to fear that things will only get worse for it, that the cost of the war will rise significantly, that Putin's inner circle will face legal, physical, and financial consequences far more serious than they do today," he explained.
In Podolyak's view, until the Russians realize this, they will continue playing the same game.
"What game are they playing? First, refusing to stop the war; second, turning the war into a genocidal campaign; and third, imitating a negotiation process but using the platform simply to voice their nonsense," he concluded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently stated that Moscow is trying to pull Washington away from Kyiv by pretending to be open to dialogue.
It is for this reason, he said, that Russia agreed to large-scale prisoner exchanges.
Today, during the NATO summit in The Hague, Trump explained why he cannot stop Russia's war against Ukraine.
