Putin announces a 72-hour truce in Ukraine starting May 8
The Russian president tries to calm Trump, who doubts Moscow's willingness to move toward peace.
MoscowVladimir Putin is trying to convince Donald Trump not to abandon mediation efforts in the Ukraine war and has once again announced a symbolic truce. It will begin at midnight on May 7-8 and run until midnight on May 10-11, in conjunction with the 80th anniversary of the Victory Day on May 9, which commemorates the Soviet victory in World War II.
On that day, some twenty international leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will be in Moscow's Red Square for the traditional military parade. Therefore, the Russian authorities are trying to strengthen security for the event, which the Russian government is trying to make even more solemn this year.
In a statement, the Kremlin urged Kiev to join the 72-hour ceasefire proposal "for humanitarian reasons," as it did on April 19, when it unilaterally declared a 30-hour halt in hostilities to coincide with Orthodox Easter. However, on that occasion, it did not even give an hour's margin between declaring the truce and its entry into force.
Ukraine has already responded that "if Russia wants peace, it must cease fire immediately." In a message to X, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiha asks "why wait until May 8?" and adds that his country is ready to support "a long-term, lasting and comprehensive ceasefire."
Putin's initiative comes after Trump expressed doubts about the Russian president's real willingness to move towards peace. "Maybe he doesn't want to stop the war, maybe he's deceiving me and we need to try a different approach," the US president wrote on Truth Social on Saturday, who also asserted that there was "no reason" to fire Russian missiles at Ukrainian cities.
"[Trump] is increasingly annoyed with both sides in the conflict," White House spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt stressed on Monday after learning of Putin's proposal, emphasizing that the United States supports a "permanent," not a "temporary" ceasefire.
For this reason, the Kremlin leader is trying to persuade Trump that Moscow "is ready for peace negotiations with Ukraine without preconditions" and that it wants "constructive interaction" with international partners to resolve the conflict. The official position of the Russian government is that the ball is in Volodymyr Zelensky's court. His spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, reiterated on Monday that they are waiting for "a signal" from Kiev to resume "direct" talks.
Putin won't budge
However, Russia insists that any negotiations must be aimed at "eliminating the root causes" of the Ukrainian crisis. Therefore, despite some recent reports suggesting that the Kremlin could accept the US peace plan—according to some media outlets, it provided for the recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea and de facto control of the Ukrainian territories controlled by Moscow—there are currently no signs of this. In recent hours, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has repeated in several interviews with international media that his demands for a ceasefire remain at the highest level: Kiev's refusal to join NATO; an end to the alleged extermination of all things Russian in Ukraine; sovereignty over all annexed provinces; the "demilitarization and denazification" of the country; the lifting of all sanctions; and the return of frozen assets.
Russia is also unwilling to compromise on the transfer of the Zaporizhia nuclear plant to Ukraine for US management. On CBS, Lavrov denied that Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, had conveyed this idea to them, stating that it was "impossible" and that, under Russian control, the plant is "in good hands." He also requested "reliable security guarantees against the threats created by NATO's hostile activities."
Beyond not wanting to budge on any of his conditions, Putin is also not giving orders to reduce the attacks in Ukraine, as Trump has demanded. On the contrary, early Sunday morning, following the US president's message again urging him to halt the attacks, the Russian military sent 149 drones against Ukrainian targets, the third highest number in a single day in the entire month of April.