Ukrainian president earlier rejected US call for Kyiv to stop bombing oil refineries, saying Moscow must first end attacks on energy infrastructure
Donald Trump has announced an energy ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, apparently without consulting Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said the deal to stop long-range attacks was “news to me”.
In a social media post, the US president claimed the two sides had reached an agreement. “Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” he wrote on Truth Social.
He offered no further details. Zelenskyy said he was surprised by the announcement but would agree to it if Vladimir Putin did the same. “If President Trump negotiated it with Putin – please tell us when the ceasefire begins. We are ready and we will accept it,” the Ukrainian president told the Axios website.
Zelenskyy shouldn’t offer to accept a Trump-brokered deal so readily given that Trump has no incentive to negotiate with Ukraine’s best interests in mind.
It won’t matter, Putin won’t accept it anyways. This has happened many times before. Zelenskyy knows how to deal with Trump.
He thinks he’s rich and can just “grab 'em”. He sees “dear leader” in the mirror. He’s just a kindergarten teacher receiving every gold star, bragging about acing the tests he writes and grades himself.
No, this is a good play. It’s all bullshit anyway, but it buys Zelenskyy some goodwill if he plays along. It also makes Trump look stupid when he doesn’t follow up. There’s literally no downsides. The only downside would be if it’s real and Putin actually follows it. Neither of these would happen though.
Not sure how this would be a downside, Ukraine would be happy to get an energy ceasefire going into the cold months
Fair. Maybe it wouldn’t be. Strategically, I think it’d be a negative for them though. They’ve had much more luck striking energy targets than Russia has. I can see the argument for it being a win no matter what too though.
Russia is a lot colder than Ukraine.
It also makes it clear that Zelenskyy isn’t being suckered by Trump.
It would help Ukraine if it were real. And it would damage Ukraine to refuse outright. So a conditional acceptance is the least bad choice. But I’m sure Zelenskyy knew that Putin would keep bombing, since that’s what he’s going to do until his owners decide he’s no longer useful.
Zelensky is in a desperate position :(
not really? He knows Putin won’t follow it. He knows he can say “sure thing” knowing Putin wont’ follow it to appease trumps bullying sense of power and finally, he has the upper hand with deep strikes on energy infra in Russia right now which he isn’t going to have to stop because Putin won’t. So really this is just useless posturing by Trump and he knows it.
Edit: FWIW, Putin bombed Ukraine’s energy infrastructure within 24 hours of Trumps little “deal.”
Nah, he’s just calling trump’s bluff. He knows Russia will never honor it.
I hope so, I trust the guy, smarter than me :)
Russia already “broke” it.
https://abcnews.com/International/russia-strikes-power-plant-ukraine-after-trump-announces/story?id=137178264
He’s definitely smarter than Trump.
To be fair: That might be the lowest possible bar to pass on this planet…
So’s my dog, and she’s been dead for over a year.
Ukrane can stockpile long range weapons for future strikes. They can also pivot and target other logistics
Plot twist, Zelensky agreed it to Trump privately, but refuses to admit it publicly, knowing nobody will believe Trump
Now he’s just fucking with Trump? That would be hilarious