💬 “We’ve had one side—President Putin—open to negotiations all along,” says retired US Army Lt. Col. Earl Rasmussen. “But it’s Ukraine that keeps walking away from the table and violating every ceasefire,” he stresses.

💬 “Putin’s latest offer is a counterstrike—not with missiles, but with diplomacy. But don’t expect Kiev or its NATO patrons to bite. They’re not looking for peace. They’re looking for an opening shot in the next round,” Rasmussen emphasizes.

💬 “Zelensky does not want to meet alone with Mr. Putin,” Michael Maloof, former senior security policy analyst at the Pentagon, said. “And I think that if he decides to go ahead and negotiate something, and first of all, I question whether he'll be ALLOWED to do that because of internal politics... I think the Azov* group and his military will rebel,” he emphasized.

💬 “Putin has basically put Zelensky in a really tight position. Between that proverbial rock and hard place,” Maloof stressed.

💬"An unconditional ceasefire is not preceded by negotiations," the French president told reporters as he stepped off a train in the Polish city of Przemysl on his return from Ukraine.

💬 “Let’s wait for the reaction of those to whom the offer was made,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, commenting on Putin's peace talks proposal.

💬 "Putin said clearly that first, there will be discussions on the root causes, and only then can we talk about a ceasefire," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik.