President Vladimir Putin was all like, “Yo, Russia is totally down to chat with Kyiv about ending this whole war thing.” He suggested that the talks start on May 15 in Turkey. He mentioned that he was gonna talk to Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, later that day to plan for a meeting in Istanbul next week. Putin was like, “No conditions from our side, bro.” He claimed that Ukraine had bailed on talks before and messed up ceasefire deals. Both sides were blamed for attacks during the last three ceasefires, though. He seemed pretty serious about wanting to have some real talks with some real consequences, like, you know, actually having peace and stuff.
Putin dropped these comments on the last day of Russia’s three-day ceasefire. Right after that, leaders from the UK, France, Poland, and Germany were all up in his face, threatening to slap more sanctions on Russia if he didn’t agree to a 30-day ceasefire starting Monday. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz were all hanging out at a memorial for Ukrainian soldiers in Kyiv when they demanded this ceasefire in a news briefing. They had over 30 countries backing them up, all ready to support Ukraine.
The leaders said that even U.S. President Donald Trump was on board with the whole ceasefire thing after they filled him in over the phone. The White House didn’t say anything right away, though. The ceasefire was supposed to stop all the fighting on land, sea, and air. The world leaders were making a big show of force, trying to get Moscow to agree to a ceasefire so they could finally sit down and talk about ending this war that’s been going on for over three years.
Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who’s Trump’s special Ukraine guy, was like, “Hey, this ceasefire could totally kick off the process of ending the biggest and longest war in Europe since World War II.” He brought in a quote from Trump saying, “Stop the killing now,” to back up his support for a 30-day ceasefire.
Putin had mentioned before that he wanted Ukraine to bounce from four regions that Russia took over back in 2022. He also wanted Ukraine to promise they’d never join NATO, agree to limits on their army size, and make sure Russian culture and language were protected in the country. Last week, Putin was all, “Hey, Russia’s got the power and resources to see this war through to the end, but let’s hope we don’t have to bust out the nukes.”
And that’s the lowdown on what’s been going on with these talks and ceasefires. It’s a whole mess of drama and politics, but hey, that’s just how things go sometimes, right? Not really sure why this all matters, but hey, that’s the news for ya. Peace out.
