Former US official: Zelenskyy called Trump’s bluff

AlArabiya English

Zelenskyy called Trump’s bluff by agreeing to a ceasefire, shifting the dynamics and putting the pressure on Putin, former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Joel Rubin says.  #Russia #Ukraine

Transcript

00:00Does it look to you like this U.S. delegation is going to be coming back to Washington pretty

00:05much empty-handed?

00:06Well, it's wonderful to be with you and with your viewers.

00:10And the test that President Trump put forward to Vladimir Putin, it looks like we're getting

00:16some results.

00:18And Vladimir Putin might very well be failing this test.

00:22What's happening now is a very interesting twist in the dynamics of the diplomacy on

00:27Ukraine and Russia, where President Trump clearly was pressuring Ukraine for a number

00:32of weeks, months, one could argue years, but in the recent weeks in particular.

00:37And President Zelensky of Ukraine called his bluff and said, I will agree to a ceasefire.

00:46And now, of course, the message from President Trump being carried by his envoy, Steve Whitkoff,

00:52is that Vladimir Putin needs to agree to that as well.

00:56And by being rejected, which is what it appears, that is going to put a very difficult set

01:02of discussions going forward into the White House about how do they respond.

01:07Do they call out Vladimir Putin?

01:09That's something they haven't done before.

01:11Will they punish with more sanctions?

01:13Very unclear.

01:14So it's really a new moment in these diplomatic negotiations.

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