Taking to X last night, the Ukrainian President said: “Right now, we have all heard from Russia Putin’s highly predictable and manipulative words in response to the idea of a ceasefire on the front lines—at this moment he is, in fact, preparing to reject it.
“Of course, Putin is afraid to tell President Trump directly that he wants to continue this war and keep killing Ukrainians.
“That’s why, in Moscow, they are surrounding the ceasefire idea with such preconditions that it either fails or gets dragged out for as long as possible.
“Putin does this often—he doesn’t say ‘no’ outright, but he drags things out and makes reasonable solutions impossible. We see this as yet another round of Russian manipulation.”
Later in his statement he called on Western allies to ramp up the pressure on the Kremlin.
“Now is the time to increase pressure on him”, Mr Zelensky said. “Sanctions must be applied—ones that will work. We will continue working with our American and European partners and with everyone in the world who wants peace—to force Russia to end this war.”