Before winning the presidential election last fall, Trump boasted about his abilityEnd the conflict between Russia and Ukraine "within one day" and reached a ceasefire agreement that both sides can abide by during the first 100 days of the second term (with tonal significance). But now, let alone a peace deal, it’s much harder to get anything done than the White House leader expected。

Trump has retracted his initial comments about a quick end to the three-year conflict。

"I said that sentence to be an analogy, an exaggeration, to illustrate a point of view," Trump told Time magazine last week. “Obviously, people knew I said thatJust kidding, but it also means that the conflict will end. ”

To be fair, the Trump administration did not waste time, and it quickly discussed with Russia and Ukraine to promote a ceasefire agreement that could lead to peaceful negotiations. However, so far,The Trump administration has not made real progress in this regard。

The U.S. is in talks with teams in Kiev and Moscow, but Washington threatened last week,If there is no immediate sign of compromise, the negotiation will be withdrawn. Russia and Ukraine continue to accuse each other of undermining the ceasefire agreement and failing to comply with the US-brokered agreement on mutual non-attacking energy infrastructure.

"Very critical" this week

U.S. Secretary of State Rubio said on SundayThis week will be "very critical" for the White House as it will "decide whether (the United States) is willing to continue to participate in this (ceasefire negotiation) effort."

"There are reasons to stay optimistic, but there are reasons to stay realistic," Rubio said. "We are close, but not close enough."

Russia and Ukraine continued drone and missile attacks, and held separate talks with the United States. Kiev's hopes of restoring pre-conflict territorial sovereignty were hit last week when the United States seemed to be on the side of Russia, believing that Ukraine may have to accept losses from controlled territories such as Crimea as part of the peace deal.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin insists that the peace agreement is serious. Spokesman Peskov told reporters on Monday that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues, and the United States' efforts to "push the process on the road to peace" continues. He said, "Russia has been confirmed many times by President Putin that Russia is ready to start the negotiation process with Ukraine without any prerequisites in order to embark on the road of peace. The efforts are still continuing. That's all we can say about this."

Tina Fordham, founder of Fordham Global Foresight, notedAlthough this week was described as another "success or failure" period of Russian-Ukrainian conflict diplomacy, she could not see any optimistic reasons for resolving the conflict. “It’s easy to start, but it’s hard to end,” she noted on Monday.

Fordham noted: "Both sides will tell Trump that they want to achieve peace because that's what Trump wants to hear.Maintaining the status quo is beneficial to Putin, it can last as long as it can. ”

She added: "I think we're seeing Trump getting very upset. Remember that he promised to achieve peace on the first day, and he's also very eager for the Nobel Peace Prize. Putin is not in a hurry to achieve peace, the coronavirus pandemic is against RussiaVery beneficial。”

Is there room for maneuver in terms of territory?

Trump and Zelensky held impromptu talks in the Vatican last Saturday, amid the funeral of Pope Francis, when some were optimistic that Ukrainian leaders might have convinced Trump not to succumb to Russia's demand for Ukraine to make territorial concessions.

Trump's attitude towards Putin after meeting with Zelensky is indeed tougher.The former told the media last Sunday that he expected the Russian president to "stop shooting, sit down and sign the agreement" and threaten further sanctions on Moscow.

butTrump also seems to suggest Zelensky is ready to consider ceding Crimea, as part of the agreement. And this was once the "red line" that the Ukrainian leader had previously refused to cross. When a reporter asked Trump whether he thought Zelensky was ready to give up the peninsula, Trump replied:I think yes, yes.”

Meanwhile, Zelensky said last FridayUkraine “does not have enough weapons to restore control of the Crimean Peninsula” and “a comprehensive and unconditional ceasefire opens up the possibility of discussing everything.”

As for Russia, the Kremlin said last Saturday,Putin is ready to negotiate directly with Ukraine without prerequisites. European diplomats remain suspicious.

The EU's foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday that Russia has not shown it wants peace given that Russia has hit Ukraine's civil infrastructure in recent weeks. Despite repeated attacks, Russia denies such hostile operations against civilian targets in the conflict. "We are very clear here that Ukraine wants peace and achieving peace requires both sides to be willing, and launching a conflict is a unilateral thing, and we see that Russia does not want peace."

She said: "Russia is bombing civilian and civilian infrastructure, and Ukraine agreed to an unconditional ceasefire more than a month ago.We need to see more pressure on Russia, make Russia want peace too. "The EU's position on the future of Crimea is clear, she added. "International law is very clear: Crimea belongs to Ukraine. I think if Crimea is ceded, the result will only fuel the aggressors, because changing the border through force is profitable. ”

"The only obstacle to peace is Russia and Putin because he doesn't want peace. We Ukrainians want peace as soon as possible," said Oleksiy Goncharenko on Monday.

However, he agreed,There may be room for maneuver to reach a ceasefire when Russia still captures Ukrainian territory。

"Ukraine will never recognize that any inch of our territory belongs to Russia, but the conflict may end with Russia's actual control of part of our territory, and unfortunately this will not be the first such event in world history, nor may it be the last one." He added: "One day the Russian Empire will collapse as before and we will take them back [these territories]. But for now, we cannot drive the Russians out of our territory. But again, we will never recognize that they belong to Russia. This must be absolutely clear."