Vladimir Putin’s generals always wage total war: no holds-barred, no observance of what Moscow sees as sentimental international rules of war — hence, the egregious abuses in Bucha and Irpin.
It’s also how Putin waged war against Chechnya during his tenure as prime minister, when he oversaw a devastating bombing campaign that razed the breakaway republic’s capital Grozny in 1999, which forced more than 100,000 to flee.
All this is well-documented, so Trump glossing over what happened was presumably meant to avoid any direct verbal confrontation with the Kremlin — which he seemingly still hopes is serious about peace talks. But Sumy is further proof, if any were needed, that Putin is stringing him along, like he does with all peace talks until everything is on his terms.
Back in March, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: “Plan A is, get the shooting to stop,” and that Washington’s main goal was to secure a quick ceasefire before moving on to broader talks about permanently ending the war. But that isn’t what Putin has in mind, which he openly demonstrated by withholding his agreement to a full 30-day ceasefire — a truce Ukraine agreed to. And after his March phone call with Trump, there was hardly a pause before Russia launched a massive drone assault on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
Offering a diplomatic bare minimum, the Russian leader did tell Trump he’d hold off on striking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for 30 days, but that was a self-serving concession with the harsh winter days now over. It also coincided with news that Ukraine had managed to dramatically increase the range of its powerful Neptune subsonic cruise missiles from 200 kilometers to 1,000 kilometers, which would enable Kyiv to hit oil refineries deep inside Russia.
Moreover, since that suspicious concession, there’s been no movement on Russia’s end, despite U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff’s chats with Putin. Their latest talk was last Friday, after which Witkoff again talked of how close he was to a breakthrough. We are on the “verge of something that would be very, very important for the world at large,” he said.
But the Kremlin swiftly undercut his optimism, with Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters there’s no clear outline of a U.S.-Russia deal on Ukraine — although, he said, there’s political will to move in that direction.
In the meantime, Ukrainians should duck and cover.