Of Athena Papakosta

The president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenskichose to respond carefully to his Russian counterpart proposal, Vladimir Putin For direct talks, characterizing it, on Sunday morning, as a “positive sign”, but insisting that Moscow will have to agree, first, on a direct ceasefire, starting today, Monday.

On Sunday morning the Russian president rejected the ultimatum of the West for full and unconditional ceasefire of fire30 days long, and propelled the conduct ‘direct’ negotiations“Without prerequisites”, between Moscow and Kiev, in Constantinople on Thursday, May 15th. Earlier, the Kremlin had stressed that the Russian Federation would accept the proposal as the West stopped supplying Ukraine with weapons.

It had been preceded by the West’s ultimatum to impose additional sanctions on Moscow, when the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Poland visited the Ukrainian capital and, with the support of Ukraine, called Moscow from today, Monday, to adhere to the “no.” accept her.

Europeans also talked by phone with the President of the United States, Donald Trumpand as they pointed out, Washington will impose sanctions on Moscow if Vladimir Putin does not agree on the ceasefire.

According to analysts and experts, the Russian president has not gained much of a complete ceasefire and even unconditional.

On the contrary, they explain that Vladimir Putin prefers to continue the war in order to increase pressure on Ukraine and force it to consent to a number of Moscow’s key demands, which have little changed since the start of the war in February 2022.

The Kremlin has already made it clear that it will not accept the presence of Western troops in the Ukrainian territory, and in addition to continuing the occupation of Moscow attached territories to the east of Ukrainian territory, it is expected to seek guarantees in terms of future policies.

For their part, the United States is reminded of New York Times in the last three months – as long as their efforts to put an end to the war have been aligned – they have been aligned with Moscow in a vote in the United Nations for the war and have, at the same time, restored.

Despite the fact that they have not lifted economic sanctions against Russia, they have not increased pressure with additional restrictions, while at the same time Kiev has consented to the American proposal for “unconditional” ceasefire.

In his first reaction, United States President Donald Trump described in his post on the Truth Social “Potentially Great” platform on Saturday for Russia and Ukraine, adding “Think of the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be saved, if it will end.”

The day later, the US president called on Kiev to accept the proposal, while downgrading the absence of a Moscow commitment to a ceasefire. A few minutes later, Ukraine’s president said he was ready to meet his Russian counterpart, and accepted the proposal for talks on the condition that a complete ceasefire will come into force today.

According to the British newspaper The Guardian, in the coming days, much will depend on whether Europeans will be able to convince the American side that the negotiations, while hostilities continue, are unlikely to prove to be beneficial to Kiev.

Already, French President Emmanuel Macron, commenting on the Russian president’s response, spoke of a first step but, as he said, he did not arrive and added that Vladimir Putin just “wants to save time”.

He then talked to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who, having stated his country ready to host Russia -Ukraine talks, told President Macron that it was important to continue cooperation with the launch of the peacekeeping and the launch of the Ukraine.