On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a three-day ceasefire in Ukraine that would begin May 8 at midnight Moscow time to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory against Nazi Germany in World War II.
“By order of Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, the Russian side, guided by humanitarian motives, announces a ceasefire for the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War to last from May 8, 00:00 Moscow time to May 11, 00:00 Moscow time,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
The statement added that Russia expects Ukraine to follow the ceasefire and that in the event of any “violations of the ceasefire by the Ukrainian side, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will give a proportionate and efficient response.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha criticized the Russian announcement, saying if Putin really wanted peace, he would declare a ceasefire “immediately.”
“Why wait until May 8? If the fire can be ceased now and since any date for 30 days—so it is real, not just for a parade,” Sybiha wrote on X. “Ukraine is ready to support a lasting, durable, and full ceasefire. And this is what we are constantly proposing, for at least 30 days.”
Putin similarly declared a ceasefire on Easter, but both sides accused the other of violating it.
The announcement from Putin came after President Trump said that he believed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would be willing to cede his claim to Crimea, which has been under Russian control since 2014, to reach a potential peace deal. Publicly, Zelensky has maintained that he would never recognize Crimea as Russian territory.
Trump and Zelensky had a brief meeting at the Vatican on Saturday while they were there to attend Pope Francis’s funeral. After the meeting, Trump suggested he might add more sanctions on Russia.
Pure genius on the part of Putin. What Russians celebrate as the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, the Ukronazis see very differently. It's like poking them in the eye. Well done, an epic troll.
"We're pausing our fight against neo-Nazis in 2025 to reflect on our victory over their goose-stepping-moron 'heroes' in 1945."
MUH NATZEES REEEEE
Read this, idiot.
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/04/20/on-neo-nazi-influence-in-ukraine/
You probably ignored it before. Now it's thrown in your face.
Refute all of Mr. Lauria's facts with demonstrable, verifiable evidence.
OR
Shut. The. F**k. Up. Once & for all on this topic, about which you have been LYING.
Sadly I read it
Did you LEARN anything from it ?
Are you able to change your position & opinion to reflect reality now ?
Can you admit (to yourself if no-one else) you were wrong in what you believed ?
If YES is your answer to all three, you’ll find yourself nautical light-years further into intellectual honesty territory than that dipwad peepsqueek.
Nah i’m good
So why should we interact with you if wanton ignorance is your hardwired default ?
9 May Victory Day is a division line between western and eastern Ukrainians. In WW II, vast majority of eastern Ukrainians were on the side of Soviet Army while majority of western Ukrainians were helping Nazi Germany.
Geographically, where exactly is that line?
Lvov, Ivano-Frankovsk, Ternopol, Volyn, Rovno, Chernovtsy, Khmelnitsky and Transcarpathian are west-Ukrainian oblasts.
Khmelnitsky oblast, though before WW II was a part of USSR, has a strong historical connection with Poland. So it is also considered as western Ukraine. It is not only geography, it is the historical background.
So, basically, west of Kiev. What's with Kiev itself?
Politically, Kiev is pro-western, though Kiev always was Russian speaking town.
Thank you. We don't always agree, but you are a good source of info on that part of the world.
Good on you for being someone to recognize things we all have in common and giving credit where due !
I'd have to guess, that line probably closely follows the election / vote outcomes in the 15 years before Ukraine stopped being a democracy.
Those maps embedded in articles on this site showing the clear blue / red division between east & west Ukraine.
Putin offers a hypocritical gesture of nostalgia. This proves that the Russian president and commander-in-chief of the Russian armed forces Putin has no intention of holding mutual peace talks. Contrarian_Duck as a warmonger expresses Russian war propaganda in his first comment under this article.
So you would you prefer that the Soviet Union were the one to have lost the war? The Banderites who currently rule Ukraine do, which was his point. It's a country with a national holiday for a guy and his party who happily collaborated with Nazi Germany, and which constructs memorials for units which fought with the Wehrmacht. So no, it's not propaganda.
Know what IS propaganda? The frequently parroted idea that Ukraine is somehow "defending democracy". It's been a dictatorship since last May when Zelinsky's term in office expired and he refused to hold elections or to step down, and he was followed by the Rada, whose term expired in August.
Even before last May Zelensky had banned all opposition parties and opposition media. And even if elections were held tomorrow morning, those opposition parties are still banned. Some democracy!
The Stalinist, Leninist terror is similar to the German fascist terror, a totalitarian regime. Incidentally, the German fascists interned the ultranationalist Bandera as an honorary prisoner in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin from January 1942 to September 1944. How do you conduct elections in an occupied, annexed part of the country of Ukraine?
https://eng.ipn.gov.pl/en/digital-resources/articles/8044,Stepan-Bandera-leader-of-the-Organisation-of-Ukrainian-Nationalists.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_terror
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Terror
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1012&context=hist_etds Stalin: From Terrorism to State Terror, 1905-1939
https://libcom.org/article/how-lenin-led-stalin-workers-solidarity-movement
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/gregory-petrovich-maximoff-lenin-s-terror-within-the-bolshevik-party
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/gregory-petrovich-maximoff-the-guillotine-at-work-vol-1
Do you know who the guards were for Sachsenhausen? (And many of the death camps and some of the other concentration camps?) Ukrainian POWs. Bandera was arrested and kept detained specifically because Hitler was afraid of competition. Bandera intended to somehow take over the Soviet Union with the Nazi’s assistance and make it a co-equal partner with Germany, but Hitler couldn’t tolerate Slavs being equal to Germans.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/concentration-camp-system-in-depth
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kapos-and-other-prisoner-functionaries-in-nazi-concentration-camps
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/sachsenhausen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Nazi_concentration_camp_personnel
Strategically, why should Putin consider peace while Russia is winning this war and gaining more momentum? I imagine Russia is still planning to obtain a few key centres. Interesting how any previous notions of peace talks were drowned out by Empire fueled cries of 'Slava Ukraina'
If anything, peace should only be entertained once Ukraine has new leadership. It's baffling that Zelensky is: 1) still alive and 2) still in power. Will he see 2026?
Rest assured if Ukraine somehow managed to execute it's USUK Empire sponsored/planned/supplied 'counteroffensives' to change the tide of this conflict, there would be ZERO interest in ceasefires and peace talks.
Probably nothing until the USUK Empire ground Russia to a pulp militarily and economically via the Ukraine war. Because that's what their plan was all along in effort to desperately cling to their unipolar hegemony.
But that didn't happen and the Empire's foray in Ukraine was a failed experiment. But that's ok; Blackrock and Vanguard will do well rebuilding and pillaging the rump-state that will remain.
Obviously you are defending a Russian war of aggression, which includes a war crime, since the occupation and annexation of Crimea in February/March 2014 during a pro-Russian president of Ukraine.
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/full-text Articles 33, 39, 51
http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/instree/GAres3314.html Definition of Aggression, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3314
https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/752c30/ UNGA Resolution 3314 (XXIX) Definition of Aggression
https://legal.un.org/avl/ha/da/da.html Definition of Aggression General Assembly resolution 3314 (XXIX) 14 December 1974
https://crimeofaggression.info/role-of-the-icc/definition-of-the-crime-of-aggression/
https://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/explore/icc-crimes/crime-aggression
https://www.internationalcrimesdatabase.org/Crimes/CrimeOfAggression
https://www.nurembergacademy.org/fileadmin/news_images/nuremberg-declaration-on-the-crime-of-aggression/Nuremberg_Declaration_on_the_Crime_of_Aggression.pdf
https://www.ecchr.eu/en/press-release/no-war-of-aggression-should-go-unpunished/
https://www.juragentium.org/topics/wlgo/cortona/en/pietropa.htm "Defining evil. The war of aggression and international law"
https://guide-humanitarian-law.org/content/article/3/aggression/
https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/nuremberg-principles-1950/principle-vi
https://international-review.icrc.org/articles/whose-war-is-it-anyway-proportionate-reparations-in-wars-of-aggression-927
False.
Politicar is posing a neutral question as to State motivations on both sides regarding each State's subjective view of the viability and/or necessity of a peace deal at this point.
No defense of the Russian Federation's action(s) was made or should be inferred.
Neutral? I only recognize pro-Russian advice in the statements of the Političar, e.g: “If anything, peace should only be entertained once Ukraine has new leadership. It's baffling that Zelensky is: 1) still alive and 2) still in power.” It is not Ukraine that is breaking the peace, but Russia with its counter-revolutionary, imperialist war of aggression since February/March 2014 (Euromaidan versus anti-Euromaidan of the Russian-speaking civilian population). You are biasedly manipulating the true content of the statements (should only) of the authoritarian, pro-imperialist Političar. Your propaganda does not deliver honesty, truth, seriousness, but, as in other cases, a bare lie.
False, again.
One can weigh in on a topic, hypotheses and realities and observations therewithin, without having “taken a side”.
As an atheist I can easily discuss the positions, descriptions, attributes regarding {the unnamed Christian god; Yahweh; Jehovah; Ihovah (in Latin ‘Jehovah’ begins with an “i”); El; Elohim} in a practical sense while AT NO TIME believing of conceding that any of those entities actually exist.
How ’bout this – why don’t you ACTUALLY ASK what positions Politicar actually holds, instead of inferring a potential strawman into existence ?
As a result of Političar's diction, personal opinion, I interpret Političar's statements. In his rhetoric, he clearly refrains from building and comparing political science hypotheses regarding Russia or Ukraine. He does not use text phrases such as 'if …, then …', 'from the perspective, in the case', etc.
https://politicalscienceguide.com/what-is-research/formulatingextraction-hypotheses/
https://library.fiveable.me/key-terms/intro-to-poli-sci/hypotheses
https://libguides.mssu.edu/c.php?g=185296&p=1223659 What is the difference between a thesis & a hypothesis?
https://professornerdster.com/scientific-method-political-science/
https://researcher.life/blog/article/how-to-write-a-research-hypothesis-definition-types-examples/
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/academic-writing/how-to-write-a-hypothesis/
https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/hypothesis/
A hypothesis is low on blood sugar but speculative, in a way hypoglycemia isn’t.
What did Politicar say when you asked his intentions and political leanings ?
Not sure if my other Reply went thru or not; I'll repeat the salient point here :
Have you actually ASKED Politicar their ethical and sociopolitical positions instead of perhaps inferring and forging a strawman position they might not actually hold ?
"Obviously you are defending a Russian war of aggression, which includes a war crime, since the occupation and annexation of Crimea in February/March 2014 during a pro-Russian president of Ukraine."
No.
I am against unipolar hegemony, regardless of state. The global geopolitical realm has been dominated by the Empire since 1991. And with the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. it has romped around the globe with impunity, regardless of administration.
Why? Because it could. And it did.
It, along with it's quisling supporters, via regime changes, aid packages and organized wars have caused global death and destruction on an unprecedented scale.
Seeing as it's close to the 50th anniversary. let's start with Vietnam. What happened next?
Iran-Iraq…US support Iraq, but sell arms to Iran via Israel? Iran-Contra Affair?
Lebanon
Grenada
Panama
Kuwait
Somalia
Iraq – Gulf War (wait, they supported Iraq)
Yugoslav wars (US Foreign App. Act 1991)
***NATO's first mission since inception***
Kosovo
Afghanistan (wait, they supported the Mujahideen)
Iraq – WMDs….oh yes, all those WMDs!
Libya
Syria
Yemen
GAZA
Sudan
Kindly redirect all your war criminal/mongering, 'definitions of act of aggression', etc. rhetoric to address these conflicts/belligerents as well.
The difference with Ukraine is the Empire and it's proxies tried that same BS with Russia, but failed. Miserably.
And now, knowing of this failure, and Russia setting a historical 'Red Line Precedent' (read FAFO), the proxies are all butt-hurt because things aren't going their way.
The EU is in disarray and fracturing and right wing populism is on the rise.
Lastly, your typical barrage of reference links mean nothing because no one really cares since there is no 'rules based order' unless it's punitive.
And next time you quote 2014, please ensure to attach this:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f078d0d517b0dd3292da0bc81ddca45612bf246f6324ed712ee5676d056f4df2.jpg
MUH RED LINES REEEE
"MUH RED LINES REEEE"
Funny, you said this exact thing about observations of neo-Nazi influence in Ukraine.
Until this article….
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/04/20/on-neo-nazi-influence-in-ukraine/
… demonstrated your SHOCKING ignorance on the topic and rightfully shut you up.
Well said, politician!
In addition to all those wars you listed, let's not forget all the regime changes all around the world, the resulting carnage, terrorism, and support for murderous right-wing thugs. One million dead people in Indonesia alone, and I could list dozens and dozens of other countries if I had time.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6f219e0ec736e4e4027c01c3544c8c31f2e00e132635b363e4ebcc1db4bb5622.jpg
And that's not even half of it. Some commissions on that list off the top of my head: Italy after WWII – preventing the communist from rightfully being elected to run the government. France – sabotaging the unions, even creating a fake union run by the CIA. Meddling in Russian elections on behalf of their poodle Yeltsin. Etc, etc, etc…
I don't need to re-route anything because I am politically engaged or critical of your stated events of USA/NATO unipolar hegemony in the past, which in principle also applies in the present or in the future. Incidentally, in an anti-European, nationalistic, propagandistic way, you are deliberately concealing the BRICS alliance or China's economic involvement or Russia's military intervention (Chechnya, Georgia, Syria etc.) in Africa or in the world, or the vote of the nuclear powers China and Russia in the UN Security Council, aren't you? Nor do you take into account the international cooperation on the ISS space station, which Russia will soon deactivate, probably to cooperate with China's space station. As a result, you are talking absurdly about a USA/NATO unipolar hegemony.
https://en.cmse.gov.cn/ China Space Station
https://www.trt.global/afrika-english/article/fdb170025a11 Russia vows more military support for Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali
https://mid.ru/en/maps/ml/ Republic of Mali
https://mid.ru/en/maps/
http://en.cidca.gov.cn/ China International Development Cooperation Agency.
https://china.aiddata.org/
"Incidentally, in an anti-European, nationalistic, propagandistic way, you are deliberately concealing the BRICS alliance or China's economic involvement or Russia's military intervention (Chechnya, Georgia, Syria etc.) in Africa or in the world, or the vote of the nuclear powers China and Russia in the UN Security Council, aren't you?"
I'm deliberately concealing the BRICS alliance!?!? And all the other accusations in your post?
You're an idiot. Why?
Quite simply, and using your exemplary post as reference, you have an altruistic view of the Empire-led West completely ignoring the West's culpability, meanwhile vilifying China, Russia, etc. Moreover, you make accusations that have zero basis. Just dumb-ass assumptions on your part.
"As a result, you are talking absurdly about a U.S./NATO unipolar hegemony."
Please explain how, exactly, I'm "talking absurdly". Sounds like you are denying that the US is a global hegemon? Now, that's absurd.
Remember when you quote 2014, make sure to include a link to this picture.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f078d0d517b0dd3292da0bc81ddca45612bf246f6324ed712ee5676d056f4df2.jpg
The US has been trying, and failing, to be a “global hegemon” since World War 2 ended. It never had any chance of succeeding.
Why should I reply to an authoritarian, moronic concrete head who berates and defames me?
https://sites.evergreen.edu/zoltan/wp-content/uploads/sites/358/2019/11/InterventionsList2019.pdf U.S. MILITARY INTERVENTIONS SINCE 1890: FROM WOUNDED KNEE TO SYRIA
https://sgp.fas.org/crs/natsec/R42738.pdf Congressional Research Service: Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2023
Then don't reply, you silly little person.
Your aggressive behavior shows your dangerous craving for power over humans.
Duck does not read as "warmonger" – he describes Putin's unilateral ceasefire proposal as "pure genius", suggesting the opposite of "warmonger".
It is unclear how a unilateral 3-day ceasefire precludes peace talks. In fact, a peaceful environment would be MOST conducive to such engagement.
Contrarian_Duck also omits in another comment the Russian war of aggression since the occupation and annexation of Crimea in February/March 2014 during a pro-Russian president of Ukraine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yanukovych
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko
To be honest, I have no hope whatsoever for this 3-day unilateral ceasefire. In Saint Peter's Zelensky was – as usual – hustling for more weapons. I think Robert Fico is right, Zelensky is terrified of peace.
For one thing, he'd go down in history as the guy who lost the war and 20% of Ukrainian territory, not to mention the lives lost. For another, there may well be a firing squad in his future. I'll be very disappointed if there isn't.
It’ll be a tricky thing to measure, Putin’s intended ceasefire. I do think he’ll reign in the Russian Federation military in that period, but given a near-certainty of attacks by the Ukrainian side in that time and Putin’s reserved-right to respond to those….and a Russophobic MSM…I see it being a case of both sides engaged in reduced combat, with the RF only responding to attacks but Zelenskiyy and a compliant Western MSM crowing that “Russia shot first”.
Because Russia has never attacked Ukraine
Yes, they have – WITAS have you been, under a rock ? Both the Russian Federation and Ukraine launch attacks and counter-attacks. Such is the normal prosecution of a war.
What I'm saying is, I believe that the Russian Federation will stop attacks in the 72-hr ceasefire but WILL counter-attack if / when / when Ukraine attacks in that same period. But Kiev and its schadenfreude Western MSM goaders will lie about Ukraine attacking, and claim the RF was the aggressor in every instance.
I agree with Contrarian Duck – it really does seem Zelenskiyy is terrified of peace, and the accountability that will land on him when it comes.
WHy would Ukraine attack Russia?
Ask the geniuses who sent the Pride of Aryan West Ukraine into the Kursk Oblast.
"…there may well be a firing squad in his future…"
To that end, I envision Zelenskiyy in a diner, Journey playing on a jukebox, the door opens, we don't see the gunman come from the bathroom to shoot him then throw a Bellamy Salute, and the screen goes black.
While they are arguing to whom should belong Crimean peninsular, Russian troops are capturing more lands in Sumy oblast. When Russian troops come to Kharkov, they will start to argue to whom should belong Donbass. When Russian troops will come to Odessa, they start talking about Sumy, Kharkov and Kherson and so on. They will be ready for a peace deal only when Russians take Kiev.
At that point, wouldn't the peace deal be what's handed to Zelenskiyy's successor by the Russian government, more than something negotiated by Ukraine's dictatorship ?
Yes, it would.
Zelensky successor, if he's rational, would clearly see that a) America's interest has moved elsewhere (China), and b) the Europeans, despite the rhetoric, are not gonna send the cavalry to ride to Ukraine's rescue. Thus, clinch your teeth and sign the surrender. But I'm afraid a lot more blood will have to be spilled before the authorities in Kiev see the absurdity of continuing the war.
It will be physically dangerous for any Ukrainian politician to sign a peace deal with Russia that cedes any territory to Russia. The Ultra-nationalists will certainly try to kill that politician. Signing a peace agreement with Russia will be signing your own death warrant.
I agree. That’s precisely why I think more blood will have to be spilled before they are forced to sign a peace agreement with Russia… perhaps by people sick of the war with pitchforks in the streets.
The best time to negotiate an end to ANY war is always “yesterday”, or failing that, “right the f**k now.”
It would fitting for Boris Johnson to visit Kiev and instruct Zelensky to unconditionally surrender and be the first to sign the peace agreement.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-42825-russian-vise-tightens
A 'permanent ceasefire' is as distant as February 22, 2022.
https://www.rt.com/russia/616487-kremlin-overlook-zelensky-legitimacy/
It appears Zelensky wants all living and breathing Ukrainians in this fight.
Apr 28, 2025 NATO Military Train with British Mercenaries and AIM-120 AMRAAM Missiles on BOARD was Blown To BITS
It is noteworthy that Vladimir Putin's words about the negative consequences for the Ukrainian Army in other directions of the front have already begun to come true. So a few hours ago, military correspondents reported on the Russian Army's serious success in the Pokrovsk direction of the front.
https://youtu.be/HRH7YM0LR84?si=s-ZzeCoMmiFwp_xO
Now hang on – it might have been a AMTRAK train.
https://youtu.be/TsLHYPX60V8?si=lB-7R-GH5IYWt7oS
You have a good sense of humor Uncle!
Col. Wilkerson on manipulations re Ukraine and NATO back to 2004 (starting around minute 39):
What a twat Putin can be sometimes
With the current condition… Ceasefire mean War to Russia and War means steady state Peace…!