Russian President Vladimir Putin again rejected President Donald Trump’s call for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine in a phone call with Trump on Monday. Trump has demanded a ceasefire for two months. While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has agreed to the proposal, Putin has consistently rejected it. Monday’s call was supposed to be a make-or-break moment to see if Trump could drag Putin into compliance.

Instead, Putin offered a masterpiece of prevaricating nothingness. Following the call’s conclusion, the former KGB officer told state media that he had proposed working with Ukraine on a “memorandum regarding a possible future peace treaty with the definition of a number of positions. These included, for example, the principles of settlement, the timing of a possible peace agreement, and so on, including a possible ceasefire for a certain period if the relevant agreements are reached.”