Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a three-day ceasefire in the war with Ukraine to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany, even as President Donald Trump has expressed growing impatience with the stalled efforts to reach a peace agreement.
The unilateral ceasefire proposed by Putin would begin on May 8 and end on May 10, the Kremlin said on Monday (local time). The United States is pressuring both sides to reach a swift deal to end the conflict that has raged since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Trump “is increasingly frustrated with leaders of both countries. He wants to see a permanent ceasefire”, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Monday morning briefing after Putin’s announcement. “The President has made it clear he wants to see a permanent ceasefire first, to stop the killing, stop the bloodshed.”
She added: “And while he remains optimistic he can strike a deal, he’s also being realistic as well.” She noted: “And both leaders need to come to the table to negotiate their way out of this.”
In a statement published on the Kremlin website, Putin said: “Based on humanitarian considerations, the Russian side declares a truce during the 80th anniversary of the Victory Day. For this period, all hostilities are stopped.”
President Donald Trump (right) has expressed growing impatience with the stalled efforts to reach a Ukraine peace agreement. Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a three-day ceasefire. Photo / Getty Images
“Russia believes that the Ukrainian side should follow this example,” the statement continued. “In the event of violations of the truce by the Ukrainian side, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will give an adequate and effective response.”
Ukraine is ready to support a lasting, durable and full ceasefire, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X, formerly Twitter. He added that if Russia truly wants peace, it should immediately stop its attacks.
“Why wait until May 8th? If the fire can be ceased now and since any date for 30 days – so it is real, not just for a parade,” he said.
Putin abruptly announced a ceasefire on Easter Sunday, April 20, even as air raid sirens echoed across Ukraine. Kyiv viewed that truce as an attempt by Putin to avoid angering an increasingly impatient Trump and create the illusion that Moscow was willing to end the war, just as the United States stepped up pressure for a negotiated settlement.
In response, Ukraine noted it agreed to a 30-day ceasefire last month – a proposal backed by the United States but rejected by Russia – and said it would match Russia’s actions during the Easter holiday period. Both sides accused each other of violating the truce, which decreased Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities for one day but failed to meaningfully stop fighting across the front line.
Putin’s announcement came after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration will determine this week whether to keep pushing for a negotiated resolution to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or shift its focus elsewhere.
“This week is going to be a really important week in which we have to make a determination about whether this is an endeavour that we want to continue to be involved in, or if it’s time to sort of focus on some other issues that are equally if not more important,” Rubio said on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Russian commentators highlighted that Trump is unlikely to bring the war in Ukraine to an end within his first 100 days in office, a timeline voiced in January by Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg.
“Putin’s truce on Victory Day means that no general, long-term truce will be declared in April. This means that the negotiations are far from over. Russia is defending its demands at the negotiations,” pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov said in a Telegram post. “And this means that Trump will not declare a truce in Ukraine on his 100th day in office.”
On Friday, Trump’s envoy to Russia, Steve Witkoff, met with Putin for the fourth time in recent weeks after presenting European leaders with a draft plan that envisions generous terms for Russia, including US recognition of Russia’s clam to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The Kremlin disclosed few details following the three-hour meeting between Witkoff and Putin, but it said the conversation was “constructive” and touched upon the possibility of direct Russia-Ukraine talks.
In an interview last week on CBS News’ Face the Nation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hinted that an imminent deal was unlikely. “We are ready to reach a deal,” Lavrov said. “But there are still some specific points – elements of this deal which need to be fine-tuned.”
At an assembly of world leaders in Rome, Zelenskyy launched a diplomatic offensive, holding talks with several European leaders to counter a US proposal that he fears would end the war on terms favouring Moscow.
Meanwhile, Trump turned to social media to criticise Putin over last week’s series of missile strikes targeting civilians in Ukraine. It was Trump’s second public condemnation of Putin and another sign of the US President’s growing frustration with the process.
The ceasefire proposed by Putin is timed around the annual May 9 Victory Day celebration in Moscow, a moment of heightened importance for the Kremlin as it seeks to project Russia’s global relevance and break isolation over the war in Ukraine.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and others are expected to attend, offering Putin a carefully curated display of international support.
– Mary Ilyushina, a reporter on the Foreign Desk of the Washington Post, covers Russia and the region. She has been with the Post since 2021.
