In case anyone had any doubts as to Vladimir Putin’s intentions with regard to ending his war of attrition against Ukraine, this should help to clarify things for you:

This is the wreckage of the passenger minibus struck by a Russian Lancet drone at 06:17 local time (03:17 GMT) today — the day following the meeting at Istanbul, Turkiye, when an attempt at negotiating a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine . . . or, at the very least, a 30-day ceasefire to allow for serious negotiations . . . failed miserably after just 90 minutes.

But, as is now well known, Vladimir Putin declined to show up for the meetings, sending instead a low-level delegation that obviously had no authority to negotiate anything beyond an exchange of prisoners. And while his dog-and-pony show was taking place in Istanbul, he was in the Kremlin, busily authorizing further attacks . . . this one killing nine and injuring four other civilians on their way to the city of Sumy in a clearly non-military vehicle.

Russian state media reported that their forces had struck a “military staging area” in the Sumy province. [Jaroslav Lukiv, BBC News, May 17, 2025.]

Right.

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A day earlier, following a four-day state visit to the Middle East, Donald Trump told reporters that “nothing’s going to happen [regarding Ukraine] until Putin and I get together. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there and I don’t believe anything’s going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together.” [Id.]

Those words — coming on the heels of three days of back-and-forth between Trump and Putin as to whether either or both of them would even bother to show up in Istanbul if the other one wasn’t coming — sound very much like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And now, Trump has announced that he will speak with Putin by phone on Monday, May 19th, at 10:00 a.m. EST (4:00 p.m. CET), followed by a call with Zelensky and a group call with Zelensky and “various members of NATO.” In a post on his Truth Social network, he said:

“The subjects of the call will be … stopping the ‘bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, and trade. Hopefully it will be a productive day, a cease-fire will take place, and this very violent war, a war that should never have happened, will end.” [RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, May 17, 2025.]

Well, that would certainly be the best-case scenario. It’s also the one Trump has been promising the world since he began his presidential campaign.

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In the meantime, Yuriy Zarko, chief administrator of the town of Bilopillya, Ukraine, where nine people lay dead among the wreckage of a blue minibus, had this to say:

“This day will become Black Saturday in the history of our town.”

And the citizens of Sumy continue to flee in anticipation of further attacks.

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Meanwhile, European leaders continue to discuss measures to be taken to force Putin’s hand; they understand all too well that his word has about as much value as a piece of lint.

Hopefully, by Monday morning, Donald Trump will also have caught on to the truth.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/17/25