Trump gives Putin deadline to agree Ukraine ceasefire BBC News - BBC News (720p, h264).mp4
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00:00President Trump has indicated he'll impose a deadline for Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine.
00:06Mr. Trump said that if the Russian leader was still stringing him along in two weeks, he would respond differently.
00:13Mr. Trump has so far stopped short of imposing sanctions, but has warned that his stance could change.
00:19While Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he'd spoken to his American counterpart,
00:24the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, about concrete proposals to be presented at a new round of direct talks with Ukraine next week in Istanbul.
00:33On Wednesday, Germany and Ukraine said that they would work together to build long-range missiles.
00:38Appearing alongside Volodymyr Zelensky in Berlin, the new German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz promised what he called a new form of military-industrial cooperation.
00:48So, will a deadline make an impact in bringing an end to the conflict?
00:51I put that question to Vitaly Shevchenko, BBC Monitoring's Russia editor and the host of UkraineCast.
00:59If it's a deadline, it's not particularly a hard deadline because they've said it before.
01:05Donald Trump's own Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, on the 4th of April, I think, he said,
01:12we'll find out soon enough, in a matter of weeks, whether Russia is serious about peace.
01:19And it looks like they still don't know, almost eight weeks later.
01:24And there's nothing in Russia's actions or rhetoric that would suggest that they are even considering stopping attacks on Ukraine.
01:34In fact, yesterday, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, he voiced another demand for Ukraine to meet.
01:44He said Russia wants Ukraine to amend its legislation.
01:48So, this list of demands, it's growing.
01:51Russia's still saying that it intends to capture more territory in Ukraine, at least the four regions that it partly controls.
01:59It still wants to discuss what it calls the root causes of the crisis.
02:05So, nothing's changed there.
02:06And also, let's not forget, Martine, that on the 12th of May, Russia was supposed to cease fire,
02:13according to demands voiced by Ukraine's allies from the Coalition of the Willing.
02:18So, all these deadlines, they came and went and nothing happened.
02:22So, hardly an incentive for Vladimir Putin to cease fire.
02:26So, how much more likely is it that Volodymyr Zelensky will decide to lean more on his European allies than the United States?
02:37Well, lean is what he can try to do.
02:42He's been gently and politely calling on the United States to exert more pressure on Russia.
02:50And following last weekend's devastating aerial attacks on Ukraine, record-breaking attacks,
02:58he said it's the silence of America and other countries that enables those attacks.
03:04And that statement triggered an outburst from Donald Trump, who said,
03:10I don't like anything that's coming out of Volodymyr Zelensky's mouth.
03:14That's a quote.
03:16So, the Ukrainian president has been trying to get Ukraine's allies to take some action,
03:25but so far, nothing they've taken has been able to stop the Russians.
03:31In fact, this morning, I've been looking at reports of more people killed in Ukraine in aerial attacks.
03:37One 68-year-old man in Sumi and five glide bombs dropped in a village in Zaporizh region.
03:44So, those attacks just continue.
03:48BBC Monitoring's Russia editor Vitaly Shevchenko is speaking to us earlier.
03:52Well, in the last few minutes, a few lines have dropped from the Kremlin's morning press briefing.
03:59And Dmitry Preskov has been speaking again about this matter.
04:03He says there are currently no plans for Vladimir Putin to speak to Donald Trump.
04:08He said, we propose talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on the 2nd of June.
04:14And so far, there's been no answer from Kiev.
04:17And he went on to say the main thing right now is to continue the direct Russia-Ukraine talks.
04:22Of course, some of those happened in Istanbul and very little emerged from them.
04:27But there was that prisoner exchange, of course.
04:29He said, we're not going to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to