Trump will spin Ukraine ceasefire as victory to claim global win — politician

Oleh Rybachuk, politician and former Vice Prime Minister for European Integration, expressed this opinion on Espreso TV.

"Primarily, he built his presidential campaign around this. We remember that Trump said that with a weak, sleepy Biden, who was not respected by anyone, the world just fell apart. Bad guys began taking other people's territories, wars broke out, and that famous phrase about how this wouldn't have happened if he were in power," he said.

Rybachuk reminded that Trump promised that his presidency in the U.S. would bring order, prosperity, peace, and grace to the world.

"We've been seeing for over a hundred days that peace and grace are still very far away. He needs a result. There’s an intermediate result — the rare earth metals agreement, but that’s something Trump presents to his audience. But in terms of his successes in foreign policy, he has no successes. I think for Trump, a measure of success will be if Putin plans a trip to Istanbul and if a ceasefire agreement is fundamentally reached there — then Trump will be there. He would really like to be the person who brought the matter to a close. For Trump, it’s not even peace, but that the hot phase of the war ends and a 30-day ceasefire is achieved — he will present this as his victory," concluded the expert.

• During his night address on May 11, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin claimed to be ready for direct negotiations with Ukraine in Turkey next week. However, he ignored the idea of a 30-day ceasefire. In response, US President Donald Trump stated that he would continue working with both sides, and the upcoming week would be "big."
• On May 12, the German government stated that if Russia did not agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine by the end of the day, European partners would begin preparations for new sanctions. 
• Meanwhile, the Kremlin stated that "the language of ultimatums is unacceptable for Russia."
• President of the United States Donald Trump stated that he could personally attend the negotiations in Istanbul on May 15, where talks between Kyiv and Moscow are likely to take place.