Washington, Moscow and Europe have all proposed ceasefire proposals for conflict this month, with two coming up in the past week.
Ukraine's administration, President Donald Trump, made a proposal to Ukraine on April 17, saying it was "the final proposal from the United States to both sides."
Ukraine received its own proposal backed by European officials on April 23, but U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio allegedly withdrew from the meeting for discussion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a three-day unilateral ceasefire on Monday to mark the Victory Day on May 9 in honor of Russia's role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refuted Putin's proposal as "another attempt to manipulate," saying: "For some reason, everyone should wait until May 8 to stop the fires, just to keep Putin silent on the march."
Trump appears to have put in the best efforts on Kyiv to end the hostilities quickly and permanently, but his proposal, revealed by Reuters, made a significant concession against Europeans.
Trump acknowledged Russia's legal ownership of Crimea, and in fact, it has partially conquered ownership of four provinces, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizya and Helsen.
Russia occupied the Crimean Peninsula in January 2014, and then launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. European Union's external affairs head Kaja Kallas said that Europe will not recognize violent annexation of land that is consistent with the UN Charter.
Trump's plans also provide Ukraine with post-war U.S. security assurances, which allow "temporary groups of European countries plus willing non-European countries."
Ukraine - European counter-propaganda suggests leaving all territorial negotiations after the ceasefire and says the United States should include it in the guaranteed country.
There are other differences.
The United States recognizes that Russia requires Ukraine to never enter NATO and that Western sanctions on Russia should be lifted immediately.
UEFA - Ukrainian anti-Propassar (Out-Ikrainian) said, “After achieving sustainable peace, sanctions may be gradually relaxed and restored in violation of peace agreements.”
It also stipulates that there is no restriction on the Ukrainian Defence Force" and “there is no restriction on the presence, weapons and movement of friendly foreign forces on Ukrainian territory.”
Russian officials have repeatedly rejected both ideas, saying it will never accept European (and therefore NATO) forces on Ukrainian soil, and Ukraine must reduce its own army to the power of tokens.
The prospects of the EU are fundamentally different from those of the Trump administration.
"If you want to kill, you should put pressure on Russia, which is actually killing people," said Kaja Kallas, vice president of the European Commission, to reporters on April 16.
By contrast, Trump stopped all military cooperation with Ukraine in the first week of March to urge Kiev to seek peace. It was this week that Russian troops took Ukrainian troops from most of the land occupied by Russia's Kursk region.
According to the Washington Post, Ukraine's defense and foreign minister failed to meet with their British and French counterparts when he proposed a peace plan in London on April 23, apparently because of the U.S. Rubio's withdrawal from the meeting.
The day after the proposal, Putin launched a massive attack on Keefe, killing 12 civilians and injuring dozens of people.
"Russia claims to seek peace and launches a deadly air strike on Kiev. It's not a pursuit of peace, but a mockery of it. The real obstacle is not Ukraine, but Russia's war goals have not changed," Karas said.
"I'm not happy with Russia's strike against Kiev," Trump wrote in his social media platform "Social Truth"
Two days later, he threatened Putin with threats of sanctions after meeting with Zelenskyy at the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome.
"In the past few days, Putin has no reason to fire missiles at civilians, towns and towns," he wrote. "It makes me think maybe he doesn't want to stop the war, he's just poaching me and has to pass 'banking' or "secondary sanctions?" '"Treat it in a different way?"
"The Vatican and Rome meeting confirmed that our partners understand what is going on," Zelenskyy said.
Meanwhile, Putin's troops claimed to have completely ejected Ukraine from Kursk on Saturday, thus creating conditions for further successful operations of the Russian armed forces.
Russian and North Korean officials praised Kursk's North Korean troops, which has been denied since aid that began in November.
Valery Gerasimov, head of Russian officers, said on Saturday that North Korea has provided "a large amount of aid".
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov praised last year's strategic cooperation agreement for North Korea and said Russia was willing to provide military aid if necessary.
North Korea's Central Military Commission also formally acknowledged cooperation for the first time on Monday, citing leader Kim Jong-un as saying that the Kursk operation was "a sacred mission to further strengthen strong friendship and solidarity between Russia and North Korea."
If anything, Russia's actions and statements show that Moscow asserts itself along its border with the EU and NATO.
“In the past year, the military power of NATO countries deployed near Russia’s western border has increased nearly 2.5 times over the past year,” former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Russian News’ TASS in an interview last week.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Russia expanded its forces along the borders of Finland and stockpiled new tanks, citing Western military and intelligence officials.