How Putin’s violation of Ukraine ceasefire shows Trump has failed again ...Middle East

Russia has broken an Easter truce with Ukraine, setting back Donald Trump’s ambitious plan for a ceasefire in the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces to stop all military activity in Ukraine for 30 hours, from 6pm Moscow time (4pm in the UK) on Saturday until midnight on Sunday.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the ceasefire was only an “impression”, accusing the Kremlin of carrying out 387 shellings, 19 assaults and using drones 290 times during the first six hours of the truce.

Zelensky said that Ukrainian soldiers were “responding everywhere as the enemy deserves”.

The truce breakdown is a blow to Trump, who pledged to resolve the conflict on “day one” of his second term presidency.

The US has brokered negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in recent months but the talks have failed to bear fruit – except for a ceasefire in Black Sea which is considered largely inconsequential to the course of the war.

The lack of progress appears to be testing the White House’s patience.

Yesterday, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US would walk away from negotiations if there were no clear signs of progress soon.

“We’re not going to continue with this endeavour for weeks and months on end. So we need to determine very quickly now, and I’m talking about a matter of days, whether or not this is doable in the next few weeks,” Rubio said in Paris after meeting European and Ukrainian leaders.

“If it’s not possible, if we’re so far apart that this is not going to happen, then I think the president is probably at a point where he’s going to say, ‘well, we’re done’.”

Russia ‘in no rush’ to end the war

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said some progress on a peace settlement had already been made but that contacts with Washington were difficult.

However, Russia is widely considered to be stalling talks, with little incentive to bring the conflict to a close.

The Kremlin has allegedly sent a delegation of lower-level, technical officials who have been told to discuss general issues, in an attempt to slow the talks down.

These include a security service veteran who is particularly disliked in Kyiv for his role at the start of the war, according to Bloomberg.

It has also set out a series of extreme – and arguably unrealistic – demands for an agreement, which will inevitably slow the talks, as mediators work to find common ground.

Russia wants not only to gain permanent control of large swathes of territory, but also ensure Ukraine’s military teeth are removed; reducing the size of its army, banning it from joining Nato and preventing it from receiving military support from allies.

It also may push to reform Ukraine domestically, forcing elections, imposing a federal system and even making Russian a second state language.

Throughout the talks, it has ramped up attacks on Ukraine, also reducing the likelihood of a ceasefire.

Dr Neil Melvin, Director of International Security at defence thinktank RUSI, said that Putin was not inclined to make a peace deal because he “feels he is winning the war” – and has the economic resource to continue it for at least a year.

“The economic situation is causing some tensions, but most estimates are that the Russian economy can be managed for at least another year to 18 months before there starts to be major problems,” he previously told The i Paper, and Putin is under “very little domestic pressure in terms of the losses of the war”.

The war in Ukraine is not Trump’s only foreign policy set back.

The US President is currently attempting to broker an agreement on nuclear weapons with Tehran, saying Iran “can’t have a nuclear weapon” and that there would be “trouble” if the talks do not bear fruit.

But Trump himself set back progress on Iranian nuclear disarmament when he pulled the US out of the last Iran nuclear deal in 2018.

The deal had placed limitations on its nuclear programme in exchange for relief from sanctions, but effectively collapsed when Trump withdrew – and has led to significant advances in Iran’s nuclear capability in the years since.

Dr Rob Geist Pinfold, international security lecturer at King’s College London, said Iran’s nuclear programme had accelerated since the collapse of the agreement, and its breakout period [the time needed to produce a nuclear bomb] had “shortened significantly in recent years”.

Pinfold said it was important to note that it was “the US and Israel that killed that deal, not Iran”.

Trump discussed his efforts to curb Iranian nuclear progress during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House on 7 April. Israel is the US’s key ally in the region and has not ruled out further strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. (Photo by Saul Loeb/ AFP)

Intelligence company Janes also said Iran’s nuclear programme had advanced since the deal collapased.

While Iran almost certainly does not yet have nuclear weapons, it does have some of the capabilities needed to create a bomb, including the ballistic missiles that could theoretically be used to carry nuclear warheads, and uranium supplies, Janes said.

“As of April 2025, Iran has a stockpile of enriched uranium which means that the country has enough material for around six to eight nuclear weapons, depending on warhead design and configuration, and further enrichening its stockpile to 80 to 90 per cent [the level needed for weapons].”

Tehran says its nuclear programme “only serves peaceful purposes” and that “nuclear weapons have no place in our doctrine”.

US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is leading negotiations with Iran, led by foreign minsiter Abbas Araqchi (Photos: Mandel Ngan and Amer Hilabi/AFP/Getty)

But this week, Trump’s administration has been back at the negotiating table with Iran as it seeks to curb its nuclear progress.

 Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for four hours in Rome on Saturday with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, via an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.

Araqchi later told Iranian state TV that some progress was made and that more meetings will be held next week in Oman.

Pinfold said Trump had made the job harder through his withdrawal from the previous deal.

“Iran is weaker than ever and has already offered trump basically the same deal as the [2015 agreement]. The issue is that he pulled the plug on that deal so will need to get something better,” he said.

“This is why the US has stepped up attacks on the Houthis – it’s a way to keep Iran under pressure whilst avoiding a direct escalation like air strikes on Iran that would mean a deal would no longer be possible.”

Trade wars watered down

Trump has made tariffs central to his economic and foreign policy agendas, introducing wide ranging levies on trading partners around the world, in a bid to bring new jobs and investment to the US.

But he was forced to retreat in his trade wars after the global economy went into shock, with the stock market plummeting and billions of pounds being wiped off the value of UK pension pots.

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The zenith of the trade battle was the imposition of 145 per cent tariffs on China, which drew retaliatory 125 per cent tariffs on US imports from Beijing.

But after the turbulence showed no signs of abating, Trump announced a 90 day pause on his tariffs – and quietly watered down the measures imposed on China.

Trump granted exclusions on smartphones, computers and some other electronics imported largely from China, in a notice to shippers late on Friday.

However, the US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has indicated further levies will be placed on the goods at a later date.

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