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Prisoner Exchange Agreement
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Putin suggests Russia's war on Ukraine 'coming to an end'
Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that his country’s war on Ukraine may be “coming to an end” and expressed a willingness to meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a third country if a peace deal is finalised.Putin made the comments to reporters on Saturday, hours after promising victory in Ukraine at Russia’s most scaled-back Victory Day parade in years.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Trump announces three-day ceasefire in Russia-Ukraine warlist 2 of 4Russia holds downsized Victory Day paradelist 3 of 4Photos: Scaled-back Victory Day parade in Moscowlist 4 of 4For the first time, Putin says he’s open to meeting Zelensky outside Russiaend of listThe remarks came as Russia and Ukraine began a three-day ceasefire and agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners, in developments that raised cautious hopes of renewed diplomatic progress.At the parade, Putin praised Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, framing their mission as a “just cause” against “an aggressive force armed and supported by the entire NATO bloc”.“Victory has always been and will be ours,” he added, as columns of troops lined up on Moscow’s Red Square.Speaking to reporters afterwards, Putin blamed Western “globalist elites” for the war, saying they had promised NATO would not expand eastward after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, but then tried to draw Ukraine into the European Union’s orbit.He then declared, “I think the matter is coming to an end.”Russia’s annual Victory Day holiday marks the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II and honours the 27 million Soviet citizens who died in the conflict.This year’s parade was more subdued than usual, with videos of military hardware shown on giant screens rather than tanks and missile systems rolling through Red Square.For the first time, Saturday’s parade featured troops from North Korea, a tribute to Pyongyang that sent its soldiers to fight alongside Moscow’s forces to repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.Russia had declared a unilateral ceasefire for the holiday on Friday and Saturday, while Zelenskyy announced a truce that was supposed to begin on May 6, but neither held, and the parties traded blame for the continuing attacks.Fears for the festivities eased on Friday, when US President Donald Trump announced that Russia and Ukraine had bowed to his request for a ceasefire running Saturday through Monday and an exchange of prisoners.“This Ceasefire will include a suspension o...
Vladimir Putin suggests Ukraine war is 'coming to an end'
Vladimir Putin has said he thinks the Ukraine war is winding down – remarks that came a few hours after he had vowed to defeat Ukraine at Moscow’s most scaled-back Victory Day parade in years.“I think that the matter is coming to an end,” Putin told reporters of the Russia-Ukraine war, Europe’s deadliest conflict since the second world war. He said he would be willing to negotiate new security arrangements for Europe, and that his preferred negotiating partner would be Germany’s former chancellor Gerhard Schröder.Putin, who has ruled Russia as president or prime minister since the last day of 1999, faces a wave of anxiety in Moscow about the war in Ukraine, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, left swathes of Ukraine in ruins, and drained Russia’s economy. Russia’s relations with Europe are worse than at any time since the depths of the cold war.Russian forces have so far been unable to take the whole of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine where Kyiv’s forces have been pushed back to a line of fortress cities. Russian advances have slowed this year, though Moscow controls just under one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.Speaking on Saturday, Putin slammed western support for Kyiv, as the first day of a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire was marked by mutual accusations of violations.“They [the west] started ratcheting up the confrontation with Russia, which continues to this day.“I think it [the war] is heading to an end but it’s still a serious matter.“They spent months waiting for Russia to suffer a crushing defeat, for its statehood to collapse. It didn’t work out.“And then they got stuck in that groove and now they can’t get out of it.”Putin added that he was ready to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a third country only once all conditions for a potential peace agreement were settled – holding to his usual position on a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart.“This should be the final point, not the negotiations themselves,” he said.Asked if he was willing to engage in talks with the Europeans, Putin said: “For me personally, the former chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr Schröder, is preferable.”Many in Ukraine and Europe will be sceptical of involving Schröder given his background as a close friend of Putin and history of ties to Russian business and projects, such as the Nord Stream gas pipelines. In 2022, after the war broke out, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, called Schröder “disgusting” for meeting with Putin and speaking in t...
Putin says he thinks Ukraine conflict 'coming to an end' - BBC
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he thinks Russia's conflict with Ukraine is coming to an end, addressing reporters after a scaled-back military parade in Moscow marking the Soviet ...
Putin declares war in Ukraine is 'coming to an end'
Russia's Vladimir Putin has declared the conflict in Ukraine is "coming to an end" on Saturday, hours after he vowed to win the war at Moscow's most scaled-back Victory Day parade in years.
