It was pretty clear that @kashirin and the other Putin admirers didn't get the concept that if Ukraine gets pushed out of Kursk (which Putin is desperately trying to do) then they can simply invade some other area of Russia to eliminate Putin's negotiating point at peace talks to keep all of eastern Ukraine (then Ukraine should keep all the land in Russia they seized as a proper corollary).
So all Trump was able to do was get Putin to agree to stop strikes on Ukrainian's energy infrastructure and civilian power plants for 30 days. This is next to meaningless since Russia was out of missiles for these types of strikes and needs to rearm by manufacturing more missiles -- and winter is over. Basically Trump accomplished nothing. Putin Agrees to Temporarily Halt Strikes on Ukraine’s Energy Targets, Kremlin Says In a call with President Trump, President Vladimir V. Putin agreed to pause strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure for 30 days. That falls short of the unconditional cease-fire Ukraine had already agreed to. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/us/politics/trump-putin-call-ukraine-russia-ceasefire.html
At this point Ukraine without full U.S. support - even worse supporting Russia - anything PuPu agrees to it is only because it is to his benefit to do so.
Putin does not want a ceasefire. He wants a "peace agreement" which gives him all of his demands including keeping all of eastern Ukraine, ending sanctions, no Ukrainian military armament or alliances, etc. Putin's associates have already stated that a 30 day ceasefire only gives Ukraine time to rearm and that they would not accept it.
This would be an impossible negotiation at this point, and Trump is the least capable at diplomatic negotiation as anyone imaginable. Examples of Trump's negotiating skill have involved taking sides and extortion. (No skilled, third-party negotiator takes sides in a conflict.) Ukraine obviously knows how to deal with extortion. They cleverly side-stepped Trump's first attempt to extort them. Among Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy There is only one proven skillful diplomat. That would be Zelenskyy. Any negotiation of an end to the Russian-Ukraine war that does not involve Ukraine has failed before its begun. The two sociopaths, Trump and Putin, are like children playing with matches and gasoline while Zelenskyy stands by with a fire extinguisher. Hopefully, Ukrainian forces will use any pause occasioned by the on-going Trump-Putin attempt to carve up Ukraine as an opportunity to polish off the remainder of Russian refineries. There is unanimity among those who know Putin well. These experts in Putin's tactics have told us there is only one way to end this conflict that avoids Ukraine becoming a vassal state of Russia and that is to Turn Off the Lights in St. Petersburg and Moscow and let the Russian people decide what to do with Putin. This could take at least another two years as the EU countries need time to get up to speed militarily. Former U.S. allies around the globe are just waking to the reality that the U.S. and Russia are now allies in this war... That's a sort of progress!, as is anytime the truth emerges from a mountain of lies. Patience is essential, although the eventual the outcome is certain. Neither Russia, nor any other country, can win a war that its own soldiers are not fully committed to, assuming they are fighting against a steadfast and determined adversary. The U.S. has proved this fundamental principal to be true over and over again. The U.S. dropped more ordinance on little Vietnam than they did on Germany in all of WWII, and still had to go home having accomplished nothing but death, destruction and heartache. How quickly we forget that we were then a pariah among nations, as Russia is today and the U.S. is fast becoming once more...
Russia 'senses Trump's desperation' — and took advantage: reporter The call was scheduled but Putin made Trump wait for an hour...
Trump is Putin's little biatch. Even the right-wing Washington Examiner agrees. Putin manipulates Trump, gets KGB art of the ceasefire deal https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...-manipulates-trump-kgb-art-of-ceasefire-deal/ After delaying their phone call and then laughing about it to assembled Russian industrialists and state media (a very Russian attempt to show President Donald Trump who is boss), Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to have thoroughly manipulated Trump during their conversation on Tuesday. Trump was willing to put extraordinary pressure on Ukraine to agree to a full 30-day ceasefire, but Putin has now somehow persuaded Trump that the ceasefire should be limited to attacks on infrastructure and energy targets. This deal is a gift to Russia for three reasons. First, because it shows Ukraine and U.S. allies in Europe and elsewhere that Trump is not a fair arbiter for peace and can be corralled by Putin’s word games. Second, because this deal is not a ceasefire so much as it is the absolute minimum fiction Putin evidently decided he had to give Trump in order to avoid U.S. sanctions. Absent a full ceasefire, Russian forces will be able to maintain their offensive pressure against Ukrainian forces along the front lines. They are escalating that pressure to exploit Ukrainian and European fears over the reduction of U.S. support. Third, because the Russian leader will continue to attack most Ukrainian civilian and government facilities under the guise that those targets do not constitute “infrastructure” or that any Russian strikes on these targets are accidental. In contrast, and of key benefit to Russia, Ukraine will now have to suspend its strikes on Russian energy targets. Those strikes offered Ukraine its key means of weakening Russia’s war machine and denying Putin the sole export industry via which to earn foreign capital to fund his continuing war. To consider how masterfully Putin has played Trump here, consider the contrast in how Trump dealt with Ukraine and how he has now dealt with Russia. Trump suspended munitions and intelligence support to a country defending itself from invasion in order to secure its commitment to a full ceasefire. In contrast, Trump has now accepted Putin’s refusal of a full ceasefire without Russia suffering any U.S. consequences whatsoever. Even for a president who had already made abundantly clear his delusional trust in Putin’s nonexistent better intentions, his acquiescence to Putin’s gambit is an embarrassment. Trump warned Putin that playing games over a ceasefire would result in U.S. sanctions. Instead, he will now surely thank the KGB man on Truth Social for playing him for a patsy. Trump’s action undermines America’s moral and strategic credibility, weakens the already fraying trust of allies from Australia to the United Kingdom (already weak because Trump has declared trade wars on most of them), and suggests that Trump prefers the Russian art of a deal to no deal at all. Even if, that is, the Russian deal is built on the destruction of human lives, democratic nations, and, in the future, the security of America’s best European allies. Still, the American president can at least be grateful that the Russian leader has given him another thinly veiled “Tennis balls, my liege” insult gift via his proposition for NHL and Russian hockey league exhibitions.