<\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed a three-day truce ordered by Russian leader Vladimir Putin as theatrics but said Kyiv was ready for a full ceasefire.<\/p>\n
Russia has so far rejected an unconditional 30-day ceasefire pushed by Kyiv and Washington, which is trying to broker an end to the three-year Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“This is more of a theatrical performance on his part. Because in two or three days, it is impossible to develop a plan for the next steps to end the war,” Zelensky said.<\/p>\n
Zelensky was speaking on Friday to a small group of journalists including AFP, in remarks embargoed until Saturday.<\/p>\n
Zelensky said Ukraine would not be “playing games to create a pleasant atmosphere to allow for Putin’s exit from isolation on 9 May,” when some foreign leaders are due in Moscow for Russian World War II commemorations.<\/p>\n
Russia’s proposal has been seen in Ukraine as an attempt to prevent Kyiv from hitting Moscow on the holiday, during which there is a grand military parade on Red Square and the Russian leader addresses the nation.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has hit Moscow several times during the invasion, as well as targets across Russia.<\/p>\n
‘Cannot take responsibility’\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Leaders of around 20 countries, including China’s Xi Jinping, have accepted invitations to join this year’s celebration, according to the Kremlin.<\/p>\n Zelensky said some countries had approached Kyiv, warning they were travelling to Russia and had requested safety.<\/p>\n “Our position is very simple towards all countries that have travelled or are travelling to Russia on May 9 — we cannot take responsibility for what is happening on the territory of the Russian Federation,” he answered.<\/p>\n “They are ensuring your safety,” Zelensky said, adding Russia “may take various steps on its part, such as arson, explosions, and so on and then blame us.”<\/p>\n Russian officials have promised grand celebrations for the occasion, during which Putin will seek to rally support for his troops fighting in Ukraine.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Russian troops have been making gruelling gains on several parts of the front, and Moscow and Kyiv have stepped up their aerial attacks.<\/p>\n The United States has warned it could abandon efforts to broker a ceasefire if it does not see progress.<\/p>\n Washington is seeking “a complete, durable ceasefire and an end to the conflict”, rather than a “three-day moment so you can celebrate something else,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said this week.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bruce said it would ultimately be up to US President Donald Trump to decide whether to move ahead with diplomatic efforts.<\/p>\n ‘See things differently’<\/strong><\/p>\n Trump has overhauled US policy towards Russia since taking office, initiating a rapprochement with the Kremlin.<\/p>\n This culminated in an on-camera clash between Trump and Zelensky at the White House on February 28, where both leaders had been set to sign a mineral deal granting US access to Ukrainian resources in exchange for some protection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ukraine has since renegotiated the deal, which would see Washington and Kyiv jointly develop and invest in Ukraine’s critical mineral resources.<\/p>\n Zelensky on Friday said the deal was beneficial to both sides and protected Ukraine’s interests — even though the accord offers no concrete security guarantees for Kyiv.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This followed a meeting between Trump and Zelensky at the end of April before Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican, the first encounter since their public clash.<\/p>\n “We had the best conversation out of all those that preceded it,” Zelensky said Friday.<\/p>\n “I am confident that after our meeting in the Vatican, President Trump began to look at things a little differently.”<\/p>\n (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed a three-day truce ordered by Russian leader Vladimir Putin as theatrics but said Kyiv was ready for a full ceasefire. Russia has so far rejected an unconditional 30-day ceasefire pushed by Kyiv and Washington, which is trying to broker an end to the three-year Russian invasion of Ukraine. “This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4805,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4804\/revisions\/4805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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