Unusually, this year the Western and Orthodox religious calendars coincide and Easter is celebrated at the same time. The White House was said to be aiming, perhaps symbolically, for a truce in Ukraine by the festival. But as it is marked on Sunday across the globe, the war rages on.
Despite Moscow’s surprise proposal on Saturday — to halt all hostilities in the east for 30 hours, from 6pm local time until midnight on Monday, a gesture he also made in Christmas 2023 — the Kremlin simultaneously admitted Russian forces were moving forwards.
This statement is unlikely to be aimed principally at President Trump but rather a domestic audience. If Ukraine refuses to join the ceasefire, President Putin will use it to demonise Kyiv. If
diggitythedoge on April 19th, 2025 at 21:19 UTC »
Either Europe confronts Russia now while it is still strong, or it prevaricates and allows the hybrid war to continue, and Putin will know when the moment of weakness arrives.
Tammer_Stern on April 19th, 2025 at 18:28 UTC »
I think this is looking like the earlier chats on geopolitics where we note that the Trump Administration is made up of low calibre politicians. Unfortunately for the US, Russia and China are not led by donkeys and are one step ahead, at all times.
When Kellog and Rubio come back from negotiations I’m reminded of the Jedi mind trick from Star Wars as they say how it’s Ukraine’s fault, no NATO for Ukraine etc.
It would not be easy to solve the war. Only skilful negotiations or an absolute show of might would cause Russia to pause. Unfortunately, the US is looking like the schoolyard bully who has no real fighting skills other than brute strength and quickly gets bored when things get difficult.
TimesandSundayTimes on April 19th, 2025 at 18:13 UTC »
Unusually, this year the Western and Orthodox religious calendars coincide and Easter is celebrated at the same time. The White House was said to be aiming, perhaps symbolically, for a truce in Ukraine by the festival. But as it is marked on Sunday across the globe, the war rages on.
Despite the Kremlin’s surprise proposal on Saturday — to halt all hostilities in the east for 30 hours, from 6pm local time until midnight on Monday, a gesture he also made in Christmas 2023 — the Kremlin simultaneously admitted Russian forces were moving forwards.
Both Russia and the United States suggest that the window of opportunity for negotiations may be closing. On Friday night President Trump said he would “take a pass” on attempting to broker peace in a matter of days if progress was not made soon.
The consensus is that April 30, the end of Trump’s first hundred days in office, is when the current peace process runs out of road. As is, this looks like a four-way game of chicken, with Moscow, Kyiv, Washington and Brussels all hardening their positions rather than making real compromises