US President Donald Trump wants a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine to be concluded as soon as possible. The American leader is pursuing his own goal.
This opinion was expressed in a comment to Sky News by British military analyst Michael Clarke. He explained that Trump actually needs to end the war because he wants to do business with Russia and make a number of agreements with Moscow.
"He wants real estate agreements, he wants energy agreements, he wants development agreements, mineral agreements.
He can't make them with Russia while the war is going on, so he wants to end the war so he can approach Russia as a businessman with a much broader range of issues," Clark noted.
At the same time, Putin feels he is "at the top" and doesn't want a quick truce, the analyst said.
"He feels this is his moment, both in terms of what he has achieved so far and in terms of the fact that he has Donald Trump in the White House, which creates a very favorable environment for his policies. That's why he's not interested in a ceasefire," he added.
Clark suggested that the Russian government would only be interested in a ceasefire "when it feels it's losing a lot of what it thinks it's gained."
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a general agreement had already been reached on guarantees for Ukraine's security. He said discussions on the issue were ongoing. The commitments could include the deployment of a small European military contingent with logistical support from Washington.
The Kyiv Independent previously reported that behind the scenes, Russian negotiators were taking a more pragmatic stance on ending the war in Ukraine than the Kremlin's public statements suggest.