Russia and Ukraine agree to three-day ceasefire

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]That breaking news, Russia and Ukraine agreeing to a three-day ceasefire.

[00:00:04]President Trump saying he personally made the request to Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's President Vladimir Zilinski. The war between those two Eastern European nations has now lasted more than four years. Our senior White House correspondent Haley Bull is live now on the North Lawn. Haley, this is breaking news. What are we learning about this ceasefire that the president announced on Truth Social?

[00:00:26]>> Yeah, D. The ceasefire expected to be a three-day long one. President Trump saying it includes a suspension of kinetic activity or rather fighting as well as a prisoner swap. 1,000 prisoners from Ukraine, 1,000 prisoners from Russia. The president writing on Truth Social, quote, "Hopefully, it is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly, and hard-fought war." Now, the announcement comes after US negotiators met with a Ukrainian team this week and after President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio each spoke with their Russian counterparts over the course of the last week and a half in which just last week the president had suggested a ceasefire uh could happen after getting off the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. uh that announcement for Russia's victory day, notably after the Russians did not sign on to a Ukrainian uh proposed ceasefire earlier in the week. Nonetheless, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zalinski uh writing, quote, "Red Square is less important to us than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners who can be brought home." He went on to say he expects the US to ensure that Russia fulfills the agreements in this ceasefire. Notably Dell, the big question now going forward will be if this ceasefire sticks.

[00:01:48]>> Haley, is there any indication that this ceasefire could last beyond the three days?

[00:01:55]>> Well, that's a big question. Certainly, Ukraine has been calling for Russia to end its fighting since this war started as as well as uh other allies in particular. Notably, the announcement coming as Russia has continued to strike Ukraine this week with Ukraine uh saying that they would be responding in kind.

[00:02:17]Uh now again, the president saying this is a 3-day ceasefire. Uh but whether that lasts beyond the three days uh that remains to be seen but certainly uh Russian President Vladimir Putin uh has not publicly shown signs of shying away uh from the invasion of Ukraine.

[00:02:38]>> Our senior White House correspondent Haley B live for us on the north lawn.

[00:02:41]Haley, thank you very much. From Haley Bull to our senior international correspondent Jason Bolini, he is live for us in Washington DC as well. He has reported extensively from the front lines in Ukraine. And Jason, first of all, your thoughts on this three-day ceasefire.

[00:02:56]>> First of all, there was enormous anxiety heading into these next few days when this parade was going to be happening and now apparently will be happening in Moscow because of the threats that President Zalinsky had made and then the counter threats from Russia. So if this were to hold, if this ceasefire were to hold, this would be a major relief. I can tell you last time I was in Ukraine just a couple months ago, it was the dead of winter. People were freezing.

[00:03:25]Russia managed to knock out most of the electrical infrastructure in Kev itself.

[00:03:31]And I think that there's enormous worry that Russia could be stocking up missiles that if anything were to happen at that Victory Day parade in Moscow that the retaliation could come hard at the capital Ke.

[00:03:46]Jason, Putin's influence has been called into question as of late. First, there was that request, as Haley said, for a ceasefire during Moscow's Mayday celebrations. Then reports that Putin's inner circle is now starting to shrink.

[00:03:59]What can you tell us?

[00:04:02]There are those reports and reports that Shiggo who was his uh military uh his the head of his military for the first few years of the war whether his loyalty will hold now that he's no longer in that office. But I mean really at the same time uh as the world's watching the Middle East, Russia is watching the world watch the Middle East and this could be in terms of Putin and his longevity even though there are these threats and he appears to be hiding as best he can and instituting security measures to protect himself and insulate himself despite that. what this means in pro in process with the US burning through more than 800 Patriot missiles in a single day fighting Iran. You also have President Zinsky saying that Ukraine is now running short and because of that you have it could be argued Russia itself also feeling emboldened right now. You also had uh because of a sanction waiver instituted by President Trump on oil for Russia that's easing supply pressure um and that's resulting in billions of dollars flowing into into Russia's war economy and this was just as their economy appeared to be close to cracking. So they got a reprieve during that. Now there's still gas lines inside Moscow. There still could be unrest brewing, but it's very hard from us on the outside to have any sense of what the Russian people are thinking and whether they see a possibility of I mean, it sounds like this is what you're really asking. Is is there is regime change uh somewhere on the spectrum of possibilities right now? Is there a higher risk of that with Putin taking measures to protect himself?

[00:05:54]Jason, not to get ahead of our skis, but two things we now know. First of all, Russia didn't roll into Ukraine four years ago and take it over. Uh, intelligence, our intelligence missed that. And also, if you think about it, missed the the fall of the old Soviet Union. Are we missing something here?

[00:06:14]>> There could be a lot that's missing because cracking the inner circle of Putin has been very difficult. We don't know what assets the CIA has in that inner circle, what kind of information they have, but there were certainly indications over the last four years that the knowledge and confidence that American officials had about what was going on in Putin's mind that that was limited. They were worried at one point, I remember this very well when I was actually in Ukraine, the administration was worried that Putin might use a tactical nuclear weapon, right? That turned out to not be the case, thank God. And also, it turns out that that uh intelligence that was keeping US officials awake at night turned out not to be reliable. But I think that goes to show that we just don't have a great view of what's happening there in the Kremlin itself and how vulnerable President Putin may be. And also over the last few years, we've talked about there's been speculation about Putin's health and people online saying, "Oh, it looks like he's on the verge of death." Well, he's if if that were the case, he certainly made a comeback because what we do see of him, he does not appear to be uh in uh bad health necessarily or in any kind of imminent uh danger. D, >> what we do know is that four-day war is now in its fourth year. Uh Scripps News senior international correspondent Jason Bolini. Thank you.