KYIV: After more than three years of Russia’s invasion, 18-year-old Kyiv student Sofia Golovka – like most of her countrymen – has no trust in a three-day Ukraine ceasefire for May announced by Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin had last month rejected an unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine but – as US leader Donald Trump expressed frustration with little head way in resolving the Ukraine war made – announced a 72-hour truce between May 8 and May 10.
Those dates coincide with Moscow’s grand military parade to celebrate the victory over the Nazis and Kyiv responded that it wanted a 30-day truce and “not just for a parade.”
For Golovka, nothing announced by Putin can be trusted.
“How can you believe a tyrant?” she asked.
“I have no trust in Russians at all,” she told AFP on the streets of Kyiv.
Russia has hit Ukraine with a series of deadly attacks on civilian areas in recent weeks, with a strike on Kyiv last week killing 12 people.
“The reality is that the terror on civilians continues, conquering territory continues, it makes no sense,” Golovka said.
She believed Putin’s announcement was purely made to please Trump.
Macron urges Putin to ‘stop lying’ over Ukraine ceasefire
The US has been holding separate talks on ending the war with Russia and Ukraine for more than two months.
Trump has previously made sympathetic statements on Russia but has in recent days expressed frustration towards Putin.
Kyiv and its European allies have accused Putin of not wanting peace since his rejection of an unconditional ceasefire, that Ukraine had agreed to, last month.
After a series of deadly Russian strikes and meeting Zelensky in the Vatican this weekend, Trump also questioned if Putin was just “tapping me along”.
‘Manipulation’
Another student, Ruslan Tkachenko, also believed Putin’s ceasefire announcement was a “manipulation”.
He suspected Moscow wanted to “either slow down or freeze the war at least for a while to regroup their forces”.
Putin had announced short ceasefires before, which Ukraine said were constantly violated, such as a recent fragile Easter truce.
“How many times have we heard about all kinds of truces?” It’s hard to believe it anymore,“ said 24-year-old Kyiv resident Mikhail Demyanenko.
He said trust in the Russians has been “squandered not only since the beginning of the war, but also with these new truces.”
“One hundred percent (Russia) will not follow through,” he added.
He worried Trump wanted to end the conflict as “some kind of business arrangement”.
“People are still dying. Even if they have some kind of agreement, it won’t change anything in the end.”
One soldier, whose call sign was “Kazbek”, also though Putin would “not hold his promises”.
He said that Moscow presents any ceasefire as saying that Ukrainian troops violate it and they have to respond.
“This is not true. I know this because I was there,” the 42-year-old said.
Just as for the Easter ceasefire, Putin ordered his troops to respond in case there are violations in May.
Trump is pushing both sides to make progress in negotiations, but their positions are difficult to reconcile.
Kyiv has demanded an unconditional ceasefire as a condition for any talks with Moscow.
Russia has said it wants to move forward on its demands for a peace deal before accepting a wider ceasefire.
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