{"id":39638,"date":"2025-03-12T15:21:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T20:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=39638"},"modified":"2025-03-12T22:08:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T03:08:23","slug":"us-puts-putin-in-hot-seat-with-ukraine-ceasefire-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=39638","title":{"rendered":"US puts Putin in hot seat with Ukraine ceasefire proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The United States has for the first time shifted the pressure to Russia in President Trump\u2019s push for a ceasefire in Ukraine, after securing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s\u2002<\/u><\/a>support for a 30-day truce in the war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2002<\/u><\/a>came out of talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday saying the geopolitical ball was now in Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve Witkoff,<\/u><\/a> special envoy and top Trump negotiator with Russia, was reportedly planning a meeting with Putin as soon as this week. Senate Republicans expressed doubt Wednesday that Russia would back the ceasefire and warned that Putin was not an honest broker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am extremely skeptical that Russia will accept the ceasefire and I am very doubtful they want to end this war. Zelensky has passed the test of wanting peace. It is now up to Putin to show his cards,\u201d Sen. Lindsey Graham\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-S.C.) wrote in a post on the social platform X. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. John Cornyn\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Texas) shared a similar skepticism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI personally am skeptical, because [Putin\u2019s] ideologically driven of wanting to restore the Russian empire, and he\u2019s shown that he doesn\u2019t respect any agreements,\u201d Cornyn said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think [a ceasefire is] kind of a necessary prerequisite to further more serious discussions. It\u2019s not an end in and of itself, but at least hopefully people aren\u2019t being killed, so that\u2019s a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump signaled Wednesday that he could exert pressure on Putin if Russia holds back from joining a ceasefire agreement.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia, I don\u2019t want to do that because I want to get peace,\u201d he said, echoing past threats to tariff and isolate Moscow economically. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putin is likely to assert his own demands in the deal, dragging out the process toward a ceasefire, Bloomberg reported<\/u><\/a> Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we want to do is have the best possible negotiating position for Ukraine, because we know we can\u2019t trust Russia,\u201d said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-N.H.), the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen that. What we need is to hold Vladimir Putin\u2002<\/u><\/a>accountable for what he\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelensky helped repair ruptured U.S. relations when he agreed Tuesday to accept the terms of an immediate ceasefire \u2014 also securing the resumption of American military assistance and intelligence sharing, which Trump had cut off following a contentious Oval Office meeting late last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelensky discussed the terms of the 30-day ceasefire proposal in his nightly address to the country. It includes a halt in fighting across the entirety of the front line \u2014 an estimated 600 miles \u2014 and stopping missile, drone and bomb attacks, including in the Black Sea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia has only ramped up attacks on Ukraine since Trump began his public push for peace talks about a month ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump said U.S. officials were on their way to Russia and a response could come \u201cvery soon.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gotten some positive messages. But a positive message means nothing,\u201d he said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graham said he is introducing \u201cbone-breaking sanctions and tariffs\u201d legislation against Russia to compel its commitment to any ceasefire deal and negotiations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf they [Russia] do not pursue the ceasefire with the same vigor as Ukraine, there will be hell to pay,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shelby Magid, deputy director of the Atlantic Council\u2019s Eurasia Center, a Washington-based think tank, said it\u2019s in Putin\u2019s interest to accept the ceasefire and take advantage of warming relations with Trump, but cautioned that Putin has shown no shift \u201cin his maximalist aims against Ukraine.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Kremlin has a nasty habit of violating ceasefires as seen with the Minsk Accords,\u201d she said, referring to the 2014 and 2015 ceasefire agreements that sought to halt Russia\u2019s fighting on eastern Ukrainian territory it invaded and occupied. Negotiations over implementation of the agreements lasted years until Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf Russia rejects the ceasefire proposal, or accepts it only to violate it, the key question is how President Trump will respond once burned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rapprochement between the U.S. and Ukraine has eased relations with Europe, where officials are largely supportive of the Trump administration\u2019s latest move in the talks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ball, as always, is in Russia\u2019s court,\u201d Kaja Kallas, the European Union\u2019s top diplomat, wrote in a post on X.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lithuania\u2019s defense minister, Dovil\u0117 \u0160akalien\u0117, warned that the only way to negotiate with Russia is with a gun on the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn my opinion, the only efficient diplomacy with Russia was what Al Capone said: \u2018The only good negotiation is when you have a gun on the table,’\u201d she said in an interview with Fox News<\/u><\/a> last week. \u201cSo that\u2019s probably the kind of diplomacy that would work with Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump threatened banking sanctions and tariffs against Russia if it bucks opportunities for peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Pete Ricketts\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Neb.) said Trump could also use oil prices as leverage to get Putin to the table. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the main source of funding for Russia right now. If you start cutting off their income, they\u2019ll have a more difficult time funding war,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I think the president will probably consider ideas like that to put pressure on Putin to come to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Jim Risch\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Idaho), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Putin would be \u201ca fool\u201d not to carefully listen to Trump\u2019s words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know the president really well. He\u2019s a really, really good negotiator and he has \u2014 when you read these stories, they talk about \u2018so and so has the cards, so and so has the cards,’\u201d Risch said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you who has got the cards: That\u2019s Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States has for the first time shifted the pressure to Russia in President Trump\u2019s push for a ceasefire in Ukraine, after securing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s\u2002support for a 30-day truce in the war.  Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2002came out of talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday saying the geopolitical ball was now in Russian President […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1153],"tags":[24241,1205,1416],"class_list":["post-39638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military","tag-ceasefire","tag-president","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39638"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39641,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39638\/revisions\/39641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}