Putin does not accept Ukraine -furen Deal, predicts experts
‘Putin’s Playbook’ Author Rebekah Koffler came to ‘Fox & Friends First’ to discuss why she believes that Putin’s ‘in principle’ of the cease-fire is not authentic and what a leaked document could reveal about the long-term plan of Putin in Ukraine.
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President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkfoff visited Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin To discuss the proposed cessation -the Trump’s fires on Thursday in Ukraine. While the White House does not yet have a comment at the meeting, Russian media reported that it had taken place at the end of Thursday and that Putin had sent a “message” to Trump via Witkoff.
During a press conference on Thursday, Putin Trump thanked his efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine and said that he was “the idea for” the idea, but that “there are nuances.” In a speech of seven minutes and 30 seconds, the Russian Strongman outlined a list of issues related to closing a cease-fire of 30 days, including problems with verifying potential violations. Before Putin’s speech, the presidential help Yuri Ushakov, speaking on the Russian National TV, had a temporary cessation -the fires excluded and called it “some steps that imitate peaceful activities”. Putin indicated that he wanted to have a phone call with President Trump.
Zenskyy hit Putin because he was “very manipulative” and actually accused Putin of it “actually preparing a refusal”. At the end of last month, Trump Zolenskyy closed before explaining that the peace agreement was “very far away”, and called it “the worst explanation” and said, “America won’t tolerate it much longer!”
Trump’s Art of War: Win without fighting
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a joint press conference with De Wit -Russian President Alexander Lukashenko after their conversations in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
But Zenskyy is correct – peace in Ukraine is far away. Putin is very unlikely that President Trump’s current peace plan will accept. This is why.
Famous for his tireless work ethics, Trump demands that his staff reaches with record speeds, or “in Trump Time”, such as Peter Navarro, the senior adviser of the president and chief architect of Trump’s rate doctrine called it in his best -selling book, with the same name.
It is understandable that Trump wants to fulfill his campaign blade and stop bloodshed on the Eurasian land mass quickly.
Vladimir Putin, left, and Volodyymyr Zenskyy, Right (Reuters/AP)
But with all due respect for President Trump and his performance, the situation of Russia-Ukraine is extremely complex. Russia has a very different strategic culture than Western culture. And Putin is a very different kind of animal from someone who has treated Trump before. Russian thinking and the relationship with time are embodied in a famous saying: “The slower you go, the further you will get.”
First, as Trump said, during the press conference, Putin has ‘all cards’. And Vladmir Putin Is not in a hurry. He wants to end the war, but only on his conditions, which, if accepted by the US, would humiliate Washington.
On March 6, Putin publicly excluded that he made concessions on Ukraine. “We don’t need anything from others, but we will not give up what ours is,” he said in a speech broadcast on Russian National TV.
Putin believes he can call the photos. Despite unconscious Russian (and Ukrainian) losses, Russia is able to drag this war for years. Putin has indeed developed his strategy since he became president, a quarter of a century ago. He changed his military and economy on a wartime and sanction -proof Russia seven years prior to the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. “To talk to Russia from the position of strength and to threaten sanctions is a way to nowhere,” said Duma -Restenko.
It is very unlikely that additional sanctions will change Putin’s decision calculus. They are not far from so far, despite the fact that Washington has been trying to suffocate Moscow for ten years. The seriousness of American sanctions against Russia is at the top of the sanctions placed on Hitler’s Germany during the Second World War. The Russians believe that there is nothing that Trump can do to surpass Biden’s sanctions.
On this photo of the National Police of Ukraine, firefighters work on extinguishing a fire after a Russian attack on an apartment building in the city of Uman, 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Kiev, Ukraine, Friday 28 April 2023. (National Police of Ukraine via AP)
To neutralize the effect of future American sanctions, Putin has reinforced Russia for the Moving Reserves, the sovereign power fund reinforces an all-time and launched an import substitution program to stimulate indigenous production, making the trust of trust of Russia on import. Moscow also stood up a shadow tank fleet to continue the oil export, clandestine.
Secondly, USHAKOV’s rejection of Trump’s proposal from a temporary cessation -the Fires is not surprising. Putin has indicated several times that a temporary break in fighting was excluded as He does not want to give a strategic break to Ukraine, Europe or the US, to rehear. In June, Putin, in June, said speaking at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that temporary peace “will not work for Moscow, because opponents will use the freezing of the conflict to supplement the fighting losses and shortage of weapons of Ukraine.”
Indeed, Russia, at a war in wartime, now now produces more weapons in three months than the entire NATO alliance in one year, according to NATO -Secretary -General Mark Rutte. Putin also raised the armed forces of Russia above the constitutionally permitted size, to ensure that Russia can fight to the last Ukrainian.
A convoy of pro-Russian troops will pass a road in Mariupol, Ukraine in April 2022. (Reuters/Chingis Kondarov)
Ukraine is surpassed, outgunned and lack the right war fights, which encourages Putin to continue what he started, aimed at the full capitulation of Ukraine.
Thirdly, there is a series of legal barriers that Moscow and Kyiv have to solve before a deal can be signed. Neither of them has shown signs of willingness to solve them. Even if they agree to do this, it will take time. Things in Ukraine and Russia do not happen in Trump time.
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Putin concluded negotiating with Zenskyy, after he had told the state of Rossiya 1 TV that “he (Zenskyyy) has not the right to sign anything,” the Ukrainian leader “illegation”. Indeed, the presidential term of Zenskyy expired in May.
The Ukrainian parliament, at the end of February, rejected American calls for elections by taking on a resolution that excluded elections during wartime, referring to the State of Siege, in accordance with the Ukrainian constitution. On February 5, Zenskyy approved the extension From the state of siege to May 9.
President Donald Trump, right, meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zenskyy in the Oval Office in the White House on Friday, February 28, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/ Mystyslav Chernov)
In addition, Zenskyy prohibited negotiations with Putin in October 2022 by a presidential decision, after he stated that Ukraine would only negotiate with “another president of Russia.” Even if the legal swamp has been resolved, organizing and keeping elections will take time.
If a peace plan for Ukraine needs to be reached, it will almost certainly not be achieved in Trump time, but more likely in Putin Time.
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There is no shame if Trump is not dissolving the Russia-Ukraine conund in Trump time. The shame is about Biden and Obama, whose carefree policy Russia and Ukraine brought each other’s throat. Trump inherited a gigantic geopolitical mess, which was in the making for years.
Click here to read more from Rebekah Koffler
