Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared in a statement following a conversation with President Donald Trump on Monday his country “is ready for a full and unconditional ceasefire,” asserting that Russia, the invading country, must be convinced to agree to one.
President Trump spoke to Zelensky on Monday before and after a separate phone conversation with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, which the American president spoke favorably about. Trump’s direct conversation with Putin followed a chaotic week for Ukraine peace talks in which Putin initially proposed a ceasefire, Zelensky responded by flying to Turkey and challenging Putin to meet him in person, and Putin rejected the invite. Low-level Ukrainian and Russian delegations held talks in Istanbul of Friday that did not lead to any meaningful reduction in violence.
“Russian demands are detached from reality and go far beyond anything that was previously discussed. They include ultimatums for Ukraine to withdraw from its territory for a ceasefire and other non-starters and non-constructive conditions,” an unnamed Ukrainian official complained, the U.K. Times reported.
Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, colonizing its Crimean peninsula, and has been actively backing “pro-Russian” separatists in the eastern Donbass region since. In 2022, Putin announced a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, arguing that Zelensky, who was democratically elected, was an illegitimate “Nazi” dictator. That invasion has led to the Russian conquest of the entire Donbass region and the Ukrainian territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Under former President Joe Biden, the United States effusively financed the Ukrainian war effort and did not effectively advocate for an end to the conflict. President Trump has prioritized dialogue leading to an end in the video and proposed several potential mediating entities in addition to America, including Turkey and the Vatican.
Zelensky announced in a message posted to social media on Monday that he held two separate phone conversations with Trump, the second a conference call also featuring several heads of government around the world including French President Emmanuel Macron, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Hellbound and Down 