Kiev, Ukraine - U.S. President Donald Trump sounded delighted when he announced the start of direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia on Monday.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social Network: "Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations on a ceasefire and, more importantly, end the war."
The statement appears to fit Trump's deal classic - which will bring a fast, effective and peaceful settlement to Europe's hottest armed conflict since World War II and will benefit from global security.
But, European and Ukrainian observers interviewed by Al Jazeera, including former Russian diplomats and top Ukrainian military officials, said that he agreed to resume direct negotiations abandoned in 2022, with Russian President Vladimir Putin defeating Trump's in a silent diplomatic victory.
Putin thwarted a ceasefire, they said, and his Ukrainian rival Volodymyr Zelenskyy had been holding on for months and left Washington out of negotiations.
They said the Russian leader could delay negotiations indefinitely while accumulating thousands of new soldiers to promote more Ukrainian territory until rain and snow stop this year.
Furthermore, as it appears that Trump's demands were bent over and communicated directly with Kiev, Putin escaped further U.S. sanctions while creating conversations.
"Putin essentially used Trump to create a picture of the negotiations ready for negotiations," Anton Shekhovtsov, head of the Center for Democratic Integrity for the Vienna-based think tank, told AL Jazeera.
But, “the only thing Russia prepares for negotiations is its surrender to Ukraine, nothing else.”
"I can't see what Putin can talk to Zelenskyy, and (like Putin) doesn't think Zelenskyy is a person worth communicating," he added. "I can't see any progress here."
Putin has viewed Zelenskyy as a "political puppet" for years, and his "neo-Nazi military government" allegedly forced pro-Russian Ukrainians to accept destructive Western values.
Putin appeared on Russian TV Monday night after two hours of telephone conversation with Trump, thanking Trump for his “support for resuming direct negotiations” and announcing the Kremlin’s intention to develop a “future memorandum” and a “possible ceasefire.”
A former Russian diplomat resigned from his foreign ministry to protest Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, saying Putin's preparations were "imitation."
"The negotiations will not be negotiations because Moscow does not want to have real talks with Kiev," Boris Bondarev told Al Jazeera.
For Putin, “Ukraine is nothing more than a tool, an agent, a satellite that does not determine one thing itself.”
He said that is why Putin appointed former Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky as chief negotiator.
Medinsky has been criticized for his writing history books for their de facto inaccuracies and has not been diplomatic so far.
On May 16, he threatened that the war would continue “as long as it lasts,” and told Ukrainian diplomats that Russia fought Sweden for 21 years in 1700-21 to capture the Baltic state today and to establish its new imperial capital, St. Petersburg, on former Swedish land.
Therefore, Trump's announcement as his achievements is actually a peace process of "the main achievements made by Putin."
"It's a parody so that someone in the West thinks the peace process has begun, which is why there is no need to help Ukraine, put pressure on Putin and impose new sanctions," he said.
Germany's Nikolay Mitrokhin said Putin also managed to avoid the quellation of hostilities, which would have helped Ukrainian troops strengthen their posts along the 1,100 km (700 miles) frontline.
"Apparently Putin succeeded in canceling a very unfavorable initiative from Zelenskyy and immediately started a 30-day ceasefire," he told Al Jazeera.
He said that when negotiations, clarifications and delays, Putin may try to capture more land in eastern and northern Ukraine, and even restored the giant Kakovka dam that once supplied water to Crimea before it was destroyed in 2023.
Meanwhile, according to Ukrainian president Ihor Romanenko, Moscow has recruited 160,000 soldiers and recruited about 50,000 soldiers a month, thanks in part to the proposal for a senior enlistment bonus.
"They will need at least some training so that they don't die quickly, so by the end of June (Moscow) there may be a new resource accumulating," he told Al Jazeera.
Europe was not impressed by Trump and Putin's agreement and imposed a 17th round of sanctions on Moscow on Tuesday.
Brussels and London said the sanctions would target the "shadow fleet" of Moscow tankers, a supply chain for financial institutions that helped Moscow avoid early sanctions, as well as Russian weapons producers.
But European sanctions would not be very effective without Putin's "acting in a separatist manner."
He concluded: “He hoped that everyone (the West) would leave Ukraine so that there was no supply of weapons and then he could make another imperial takeover of Ukrainian territory.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that Trump is unwilling to impose new sanctions on Russia.
"In fact, if it's obvious that the Russians are not interested in a peace deal and they just want to continue the war, it's likely that that's going to end."
He also insisted that Putin “had not received a single concession from Trump.”
Meanwhile, pro-Krimbo environmental observers were ecstatic.
"These are very successful negotiations. They may lead to the Ukrainian regime being forced to accept Russian conditions and therefore peace will be reached," Moscow analyst Sergey Markov wrote on Telegram on Monday.
"The Ukrainian regime and European leaders were shocked by the negotiations, and they believed it was a disaster for Ukraine. They believed that Trump agreed almost everything about Putin," he wrote.