US President Donald Trump’s Friday announcement of a three-day Russia-Ukraine ceasefire may give Vladimir Putin a short-term escape from pressure over Moscow’s scaled-back Victory Day celebrations, a senior US official has said. William B. Taylor, a former US ambassador to Ukraine, told TVP World’s World News Tonight that he expected both Moscow and Kyiv to observe the truce, which Trump said would run from May 9 to May 11 and include a halt to “all kinetic activity” as well as a 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange. Putin ‘panicked’ over parade Taylor argued that Putin had reason to seek a pause because Russia’s annual May 9 Victory Day parade—commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II—had been overshadowed by security concerns over Ukrainian long-range strikes. “He was terrified,” Taylor said. “He had dramatically scaled back his big parade for tomorrow.” The former ambassador said Putin had already violated earlier ceasefire proposals, leaving Ukraine under no obligation to respect Moscow’s terms. He suggested Trump’s intervention could now produce a temporary halt, but said any durable ceasefire would require much stronger pressure on Russia. Pressure on Moscow Taylor said the prisoner swap showed that agreements with Moscow were possible “when the Russians want to,” but argued that Putin had so far shown no real interest in ending the war. “The US administration has the opportunity now to put pressure on Putin to stop this war,” he said, adding that this would require continued weapons supplies to Ukraine, European financial support, and sustained Ukrainian pressure on the battlefield. Ukraine has accused Russia of violating earlier ceasefire efforts with hundreds of attacks, while Russia claimed Ukraine had launched major drone strikes ahead of the May 9 commemorations. Taylor also said Russia’s battlefield losses were becoming politically dangerous for Putin. Estimates vary widely, but Western and Ukrainian assessments put the number of Russian personnel killed and wounded in the war at over a million; the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think-tank, estimated in January that Russia had suffered nearly 1.2 million battlefield casualties by the end of 2025.
