Putin’s May ‘truce’ may be response to Trump’s post after meeting with Zelenskyy at Vatican — expert

He shared his opinions with Espreso TV.  

“I do not rule out that Putin may be playing an even more cunning game. If we look at recent events and build a logical chain, I do not rule out that in this way the Russian dictator wants to send a signal to Washington that Moscow is, after all, ready to negotiate. And I think this is a response to that post — well, it could be, in fact, a response to the post that Trump made after meeting with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In which he noted that he doubts the sincerity of Russia’s intentions regarding a peace settlement, and said that Putin might be leading him on or deceiving him, and so on,” he said.

Stanislav Zhelikhovskyi suggested that with the help of the new so-called ceasefire, which Putin proposed for May, the Russian leader wants to send a signal to the United States that Russia is supposedly ready to negotiate something.  

“In this way, Putin wants to show: ‘No, no, everything is fine, we are ready to negotiate.’ And we see that there are other signals from Washington, from the same U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, that there is very little time left. And if, in fact, Kyiv and Moscow do not agree to some kind of ceasefire, then the United States may withdraw from this process,” the international affairs expert added.

• On April 26, U.S. President Donald Trump, after a personal conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the funeral of Pope Francis, issued a statement with sharp criticism of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.  
• On April 28, Russian leader Vladimir Putin announced a so-called "truce" on the 80th anniversary of the victory in World War II. Ukraine responded.