Russian TV Mocks Trump’s Peace Plan: ‘Which One of Them?’

Russian state media pundits have mocked U.S.-led efforts to pin down a ceasefire deal to bring more than three years of full-scale war in Ukraine to an end, ahead of a planned conversation between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump.

Why It Matters

Trump pledged to end the war in Ukraine in just 24 hours but has struggled to halt Europe’s largest land conflict since World War II.

The White House, while pursuing thawing relations with the Kremlin, has become increasingly irritated with Moscow after Russian officials in March refused to agree to a U.S.-brokered, 30-day full ceasefire agreement that Ukraine has already signed.

Hopes that the U.S. can quickly secure a deal are slipping away, and the administration had openly said it is prepared to walk away from its efforts to run truce talks, although Washington has not yet followed through on the suggestion it could abandon its role as negotiator.

What To Know

“I don’t think Trump has any plan at all, aside from ‘this war wouldn’t start without him’ and ‘he is the best president in the history of humanity,'” Russian state television host Roman Babayan said in a broadcast. It was translated by the Russian Media Monitor project, run by journalist Julia Davis.

Trump has repeatedly said he believes Russia would not have launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022 if he had been in the Oval Office at the time.

“I have no idea which plan we’re discussing,” Babayan said.

Keith Kellogg, Trump’s Russia and Ukraine envoy, said on Sunday the U.S. had formulated a “comprehensive 22-point plan” after previous meetings in the U.K. capital, London.

The first of the points on the U.S. proposal is a full ceasefire, Kellogg said.

Ukraine agreed to a comprehensive 30-day ceasefire after talks with the U.S. in Saudi Arabia in March, while Russia has refused to consent to a monthlong pause and resisted making any substantial concessions, despite pressure from the Trump administration.

Russia currently controls just under a fifth of Ukrainian territory, and has claimed regions of mainland Ukraine that it does not fully control.

Russia has laid out extensive conditions for its consent to a ceasefire in Ukraine, many of which have been flatly ruled out by Kyiv, including the dismantling of its military, no path toward NATO membership, and recognition of Russia’s grip on seized territory.

Ukraine and Russia met for the first direct talks in three years in Istanbul late last week, leaving with an agreement on a prisoner exchange but without concrete progress toward a ceasefire. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said he did not expect major breakthroughs at the talks.

Russia’s chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said in a statement Moscow was “satisfied with the outcome” and had “taken note” of a Kyiv request for direct contact between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian demands in Turkey were “detached from reality and go far beyond anything that was previously discussed,” an anonymous Ukrainian diplomatic source told the Reuters news agency.

Early on Sunday morning, Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 273 explosives drones at Ukraine overnight, targeting the region around the capital city, as well as the eastern Donetsk region that has been the site of the heaviest fighting and the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region.

What People Are Saying

Zelensky said on Sunday he had a “good meeting” with Rubio and Vice President JD Vance after the “Russians sent a low level delegation of non-decision-makers” to Istanbul.

What Happens Next

Trump said on Saturday he would speak to Putin on Monday morning before a conversation with Zelensky and “various members of NATO.”

“Hopefully it will be a productive day, a ceasefire will take place,” Trump said in a post to his Truth Social page.