Putin Announced A Faux Easter Truce

Trump tells Putin to stop bombing Ukraine and to agree to a peace deal

For us bystanders in the war, the truth is that Russia doesn’t want to stop fighting until it acquires Ukraine. The excuse that they are ‘protecting’ Ukrainians is a lie that some countries that support Russia have entertained, but after Trump claimed he could end the war in a day, he is looking foolish as clearly he cannot.

At the funeral of Pope Francis, Zelenskyy greeted Macron and Starmer, and Macron did not shake Trump’s hand when it was extended to him and in fact ignored him. While many of the media focused on the image of Zelenskyy and Trump sitting on chairs in the Vatican talking before the funeral, I felt it was disrespectful even though Pope Francis probably would not have minded and would have encouraged it. Trump’s recent epiphany in realising that Russia has no interest in a ceasefire is dawning upon him that a deal cannot be made with parties who have no interest. Putin, as usual was merely stalling for time and trying to get sanctions lifted before a ceasefire was agreed. We all know how that worked out with the Black Sea agreement that was violated after a few weeks and since then everyone stopped even trying to reinstate it.

What the world leaders want is Putin to respond to the call for an unconditional ceasefire, and that’s been the case for more than 30 days. Putin announced his 30 hour ceasefire for Easter, but Russian troops still attacked Ukraine during this period, so essentially how can a ceasefire be guaranteed except to have reassurance troops on both sides?

The US are pressuring Ukraine to cede land to Russia, but we all know if that happens then Russia will continue to silently invade other regions to take over them. That has been happening for the past 30 years already and will not stop until Russia is defeated or if Putin dies. The likelihood of him retiring is low, but not impossible and a change in administration could alter matters.

To be honest, over the past couple of weeks all we have heard is all the world leaders having more talks and summits, and claims that a peace deal is on the horizon and that it needs to be sealed. We all know with Minsk there is no such thing, and while the US heads for a recession, they may not be in a position to supply Ukraine with the aid they need. Due to the Trump tariffs, China and Japan have cancelled orders for planes and equipment worth millions as the tariffs due would cost more than the items ordered. That in turn means loss of jobs and the closure of businesses and are the signs of an impending recession.

Putin was not at the funeral of Pope Francis, and I doubt he would have been welcomed either, but as 9 May ( Victory Day, a national holiday in Russia celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany), approaches, many wonder what Russia will have in store for Ukraine? Peace is unlikely to have been agreed by then, and with the Trump administration changing their minds each week, it has created an instability for the allies who have determined that the US cannot be relied upon as an ally, but is not an enemy. Trump may have publicly criticised Putin for a recent attack on Ukraine, but does Putin care? I think not, and will it affect what Putin chooses to do? Again, I doubt that Putin cares about any critical comments. He wants Ukraine and that’s all he seems to care about.

Ukraine needs security guarantees before any ceasefire actually takes place, but Russia opposes any peacekeeping troops. It seems whatever Ukraine wants for protection, the Russians reject and that’s why Russia will never agree or abide to a ceasefire unless it aid them in some way.

Day 1148 (17 Apr)

• A delegation meets in Paris to discuss how a peace deal can be made. World leaders attend including the US and Ukraine.

• The EU states that permitting Crimea to become Russian is not acceptable as it would open the doors for Russia to claim more territory and creates instability in Europe.

  

• The US votes against a UN resolution that condemned Russian aggression against Ukraine. The resolution A/79/L/75 sort cooperation between the UN and the council of Europe and Russia's status after its expulsion. The US stated that the statements of the resolution were unhelpful for the ongoing peace negotiations.

  

• The US and Ukraine have signed a memorandum of understanding and intent on the minerals deal, which has not been finalised but opens up negotiations before an economic partnership can be finalised, and steps are taken to establish a reconstruction investment fund.

Day 1149 (18 Apr)

• Ukraine has reported that it is liberated 16 km² near Pokrovsk in Donetsk, this is near the settlements of Udachne, Kotlyne, and Shevchenko.

Day 1150 (19 Apr)

• Putin declares a 30 hour ceasefire over Easter for humanitarian reasons and says Russia will abide by this as long as Ukraine does the same. Reports claimed that Russian troops continued to attack in Ukraine during this period. The truce was supposed to last from 1800 local time until 2200 on 20 April 2025

  

• Ukraine had ordered its troops only to engage if are fired upon and the Russians continued to attack therefore the Russians had to defend themselves.

• Another prisoner of war swap took place with 277 Ukrainian soldiers who would returned home in a swap that was mediated by the united Arab emirates.

Day 1151 (20 Apr)

• Easter Sunday, and the Putin ceasefire amounts to nothing as reports of Russian drones attacking Ukraine continued during the 30 hour ceasefire. No one is surprised, but gives world leaders an idea of what a Putin ceasefire actually means.

• Ukraine claims that Russia is using the Easter ceasefire to prepare an assault on Kharkiv and to regroup in Lyman. Ukraine's opinion of the ceasefire stated that it did more damage than good.

Day 1152 (21 Apr)

• Japan has agreed to provide Ukraine with satellite Geo spatial data, that would include radar images from satellites. This would assist the defence intelligence of Ukraine given that the Americans cannot be relied upon to assist in this area any longer. Negotiations for this have been ongoing since the end of February after the US suspended the exchange of military intelligence and data that was crucial for the Ukrainian troops to plan their offensives.

• Reports claim that the Russian troops have retreated from the Western outskirts of Pokrovsk.

• Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine is offering to abandon any strikes with long range drones and missiles on civilian infrastructure in Russia for at least 30 days as part of a ceasefire agreement. Putin responded saying that, “this must be dealt with,” and that Russia will consider the proposals.

Day 1153 (22 Apr)

• Details of the US proposed settlement have been released and include permitting Russia to keep land that had been occupied. This has made the front pages of some of the newspapers, where we can see that the American idea of ending the war is to basically give Putin what he wants and for the Ukrainians to surrender.

• The Russian response has been that Russia will continue to engage with the US but not with Ukraine or Europe due to the lack of consensus on some issues according to the Kremlin. The Kremlin continues to demand Ukraine to give up territory in exchange for the end of the war. Peskov stated that the war in Ukraine would end instantly if Ukraine agreed to withdraw from territory it had occupied and controls and to abandon any ambitions to join NATO. These are precisely the conditions that Ukraine will not agree to because it violates the constitution.

Day 1154 (23 Apr)

• Trump publicly blames Ukraine for stalled peace talks, even though Ukraine has agreed to the 30 day ceasefire and has signed the initial minerals agreement. Macron steps in to defend Ukraine, stating that Russia is the aggressor and anger should be at the Kremlin and not Ukraine.

• The US has said it will walk away from peace talks unless Ukraine and Russia agree to their proposed plan and if there is no sign that an agreement is achievable. Vance claimed that Ukrainian Russia would have to give up some of the territory that each occupies in order to have peace.

• A meeting of the willing to be held in London to discuss a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia has been downgraded due to what was in the US proposal for a ceasefire, and Ukraine's rejection of recognising occupied regions of Ukraine as Russian as part of the peace deal. European leaders have made it clear that it is unacceptable to handover territory to Russia because it would create an instability in Europe. The meeting will be downgraded and will not include the US Secretary of State Rubio or the special envoy Witkoff.

• The US had been informed that leaders of the European Capitals would not recognise crime as Russian, as per their proposed settlement that would recognise Crimea as part of Russia. This includes the EU, Kaja Kallas the head of European diplomacy said that the EU will never recognise crime as Russian, and also said that the US has failed to use its tools to put pressure on Russia.

• Zelenskyy has already stated that recognising occupied territory such as Crimea as Russian is not on the table as part of the peace talks.

  Ukraine does not legally recognise the occupation of Crimea. There is nothing to talk about (Zelenskyy).

Trump posts an unhelpful comment on this, showing that he has little understanding or knowledge of what happened when Crimea was invaded and annexed. The region was handed over by the Russian puppet government at the time, and there was little that Ukraine could do with a corrupt government and the EU and NATO didn’t step in to help.

Day 1155 (24 Apr)

• Witkoff visits Putin in Russia for more talks. This is the fourth visit so far and reports state ‘progress is being made’.

• The Trump administration has disbanded the Justice Department’s War Crimes, accountability team, and fired the coordinator who was responsible for collecting data on the Russian war crimes in Ukraine. What this means is that it will hinder the effort efforts to hold Russia accountable for the war crimes that have been committed, meaning that many victims may never receive any justice because the Americans have withdrawn their aid.

• Trump criticises Putin after a deadly Kyiv attack and says that he is not happy. He also states that he doesn’t care about legalities as he just wants the war to end. It’s not that simple when it comes to the lives of the citizens who are trapped in an occupied region and who are waiting to be liberated. You can’t just tell them that it’s tough because Trump wants the war to stop so you have to be Russian whether you like it or not.

  Vladimir, stop! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Let's get the peace deal done.

  I just want to see the war end. I don't care. If they're both happy, they're both sign an agreement, I have no favourites I don't want to have any favourites. I want to have a deal done.

Day 1156 (25 Apr)

• Russia claims to have retaken all of Kursk.

• The UK and France are considering sending military trainers to Ukraine rather than reassurance troops.

• Witkoff visits Putin at the Kremlin and had a three hour meeting that parties client was constructive and useful.

• Zelenskyy has said that the occupied territories will only be discussed after an unconditional ceasefire has been agreed. The NATO allies are working on security guarantees to enable the ceasefire.

• A North Korean missile used in a Kyiv attack contained 116 US made components. Sanctions don’t work!

  

• The US peace proposal is at odds with Ukraine and Europe as discussed on 17 April 2025. The proposal is a poor one that favours Russia and fails to take into account international law.

• The US states that Ukraine must handover Crimea and for it to become Russian. Russia also gets temporary control of Luhansk, Russian-controlled parts of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Kherson. Ukraine only gets Kharkiv and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant under US control.

  That in itself is a poor deal and gives Russia what they want—formal recognition that the annexed lands are Russian. There is nothing to stop Russia remaining in Kharkiv.

• No country should be told they cannot join NATO, and is what the Russians want and the US as a member of NATO should be for membership and not against it.

Russia-Ukraine Deal Framework as presented by the United States to both parties:

Ceasefire

Permanent ceasefire /Both sides immediately engage in technical implementation negotiations

Ukraine security guarantee

Ukraine receives robust security guarantees, but not from the US.

Guarantor states will be an ad hoc grouping of European states plus willing non-European states

Ukraine will not seek to join NATO

Ukraine may pursue EU membership

Territory

US provides de jure recognition of Russian control of Crimea

US provides de facto recognition of Russian control of Luhansk

US provides de facto recognition of Russian-controlled parts of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Kherson

Ukraine regains territory in Kharkiv Oblast

Ukraine regains control of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant through US control and administration of the plant, with electricity distributed to both sides, and also the Kakhovka Dam

Ukraine enjoys unhindered passage on Dnieper River and control of the Kinburn Spit

Economics

United States and Ukraine will implement economic cooperation/minerals agreement

Ukraine to be fully reconstructed and compensated financially (not stated how)

Sanctions on Russia resulting from this conflict since 2014 will be removed

Day 1157 (26 Apr)

• At the funeral of Pope Francis, many world leaders met afterwards for bilateral talks. Trump was seen talking with Zelenskyy in the Vatican, and was joined by Macron and Starmer, the latter two who seemed to snub Trump and who focused on Zelenskyy.

• Russian demands for the peace deal include Ukraine withdrawing from all the partially occupied regions. The US has rejected this as unreasonable and unachievable. Thus, Russia wants Ukraine to handover and leave the occupied regions so that they can annexe them completely.

• Russian military helicopters violate Polish airspace to assess the defences in the region

Day 1158 (27 Apr)

• Russian troops attempt to enter Sumy.

• Reports claim that Russians are training soldiers to use motorbikes to carry out offensives in Ukraine.

• Ukraine states that it still occupies some areas in Kursk and that the Russian report is fake. However, Russia has retaken areas in Kursk and Ukraine has not made any gains.

Day 1159 (28 Apr)

• Trump is catching up and says it doesn’t look like Russia wants to stop fighting after another attack on Kyiv.

• Russia thanks North Korea for providing troops to help the Russian Army.

• Putin proposes another ceasefire truce, whatever you wish to call it for the Victory Day celebrations. The ceasefire is to run from 8-11 May 2025. Again, it’s Putin calling the shots to have ceasefires when it suits him, but will it actuallu mean a ceasefire?