Posted originally on CTH on March 14, 2025 | Sundance

Why isn’t Volodymyr Zelenskyy the one asking for mercy?  That’s the larger, unspoken message from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking directly to President Donald Trump’s request for Russia to spare the lives of Ukrainian soldiers surrounded in the Kursk region, President Vladimir Putin says they will be spared if they lay down their arms and surrender.

Notice how Putin draws a distinction between President Trump and President Zelenskyy.

Putin says, “we are sympathetic to President Trump’s call to be guided by humanitarian considerations,” and then Putin shifts the emphasis on the absence of this plea from bloodthirsty Zelenskyy.  “There must be an appropriate order from the military and political leadership of Ukraine to its troops to lay down their arms and surrender,” Putin said.

“We have read today’s appeal from President Trump to spare the lives of servicemen of the Ukrainian Army in the Kursk region. In this regard, please note that Ukrainian militants have committed numerous crimes against civilians. These acts, as I have already stated, are classified by us as terrorism. At the same time, we are sympathetic to President Trump’s call to be guided by humanitarian considerations regarding these servicemen. In this regard, I emphasize that if they lay down their arms and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and dignified treatment. To effectively implement President Trump’s call, there must be an appropriate order from the military and political leadership of Ukraine to its troops to lay down their arms and surrender.”  ~ President Putin

President Putin recognizes the efforts of President Trump to reframe the U.S-Russia relationship after years of untrustworthy behavior.  Finalizing with a simple, “let’s see what comes of it.”

My sense of these details is that Russian officials and U.S. officials have essentially agreed to a messaging process.  The messaging process is the shifting of global perspectives from pretenses to non-pretending realities.

President Putin putting the responsibility of surrendering in Kursk directly on the shoulders of Volodymyr Zelenskyy to save his own troops is very strategic.  President Trump doesn’t want Zelenskyy hiding behind him, and Putin is drawing Zelenskyy out.