Attacks Continue Despite Agreement on Partial Russia-Ukraine Ceasefire

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

So prior to the phone call, the US had with Ukraine, been pushing for a 30 day unconditional cease fire. And not quite so many words, President Putin did not accept that. And President Putin is pushing for rather extreme conditions if there is to be a complete cease fire, asking that Ukraine be demilitarized, and, you know, rendered a neutral country, which is hard to imagine. 

So Putin made those big asks. But Putin is willing to work with Ukraine, it seems, on questions of strikes on electrical grid and strikes in the in the Black Sea. So it's not a complete victory for President Trump, you could describe it perhaps as a partial victory. Zelensky's response has been respectful and appreciative of President Trump. And President Zelensky has also affirmed that Ukraine truly wants a ceasefire. At the same time, President Zelensky has been skeptical in social media and a few other forums, very skeptical about the Russian position, and has asked whether the Russians are doing all of this in, in good faith. And so you don't see any kind of rift at the moment between Washington and Kyiv.

But the distance between Kyiv and Moscow is enormous. I think it's clear that the diplomacy happening now and this extends back to, meetings between the US and Ukraine in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and meetings between the US and Russia in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that this is the first act. This is the opening phases of diplomacy. I don't think that European countries are unhappy that there is diplomacy, but I think that their assumption is that at a certain point, they will come to the table and that there will be a different format. 

But at the moment, the United States is very much at the center of the story. I think what's significant in terms of next steps are two things: It's very important to see what happens on the battlefield, and it's not as if the war stopped in the last 24 hours. Lots of military operations still ongoing. And so the diplomacy at the moment is a bit ahead of the reality on the ground. And you don't want a scenario where the diplomacy continues to make progress and things on the ground stay the same. So I think the thing to watch in terms of the next few weeks or perhaps next few months, is whether there's an alignment of diplomatic agreement on the one hand; and a minimization of the war on the other.