What Trump really expects from Putin: Podolyak names three key conditions

The Office of the President of Ukraine has outlined three key conditions that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin must meet to demonstrate readiness for a ceasefire with Ukraine.

Adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak stated this in a comment for the YouTube channel «RBC-Ukraine.»

According to Podolyak, Putin must do the following to initiate a true ceasefire with Ukraine: stop attacks on Ukraine’s civilian population, halt large-scale missile and drone strikes, and cease active combat operations along the front line.

«These are the three actions that will clearly indicate that Putin is ready, first, to settle the war — meaning a political settlement; second — to engage in realistic negotiations; and third — to end the period of escalation,» the presidential adviser said.

Podolyak noted that Putin believed the events in the Middle East gave him a window of opportunity to launch massive strikes against Ukraine’s civilian population, assuming that no one would pay attention as he destroyed residential neighborhoods in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.

But that is not the case. «It’s obvious what Putin is doing, and I think Trump also realizes it,» the adviser said.

Podolyak also emphasized that Russia is not a rational state.

«Russia will continue to believe — until it fears that things will only get worse for it — that the cost of the war will significantly rise, and that Putin’s inner circle will face legal, physical, and financial problems far more serious than today,» he explained.