President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Common Secretary of the Communist Occasion of Vietnam Central Committee To Lam maintain a signing ceremony following their assembly in Moscow, Russia on Could 10, 2025.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday proposed direct talks with Ukraine on Could 15 within the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul that he mentioned must be geared toward bringing a sturdy peace and eliminating the foundation causes of the struggle.
Putin despatched 1000’s of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, unleashing a struggle that has left tons of of 1000’s of troopers useless and triggering the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West for the reason that 1962 Cuban Missile Disaster.
He mentioned Russia was proposing direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul in an try to “remove the foundation causes of the battle” and “to attain the restoration of a long-term, lasting peace” slightly than merely a pause for rearmament.
“We’re proposing that Kyiv resume direct negotiations with none preconditions,” Putin mentioned from the Kremlin within the early hours of Sunday. “We provide the Kyiv authorities to renew negotiations already on Thursday, in Istanbul.”
Regardless of private and non-private strain from U.S. President Donald Trump and repeated warnings from European powers, Putin has provided few concessions in the direction of ending the battle.
Putin mentioned that he would communicate to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan afterward Sunday about facilitating the talks, which he mentioned may result in a ceasefire.
“Our proposal, as they are saying, is on the desk. The choice is now as much as the Ukrainian authorities and their curators, who’re guided, it appears, by their private political ambitions, and never by the pursuits of their peoples.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s workplace and Ukraine’s international ministry didn’t instantly reply to Reuters’ request for touch upon the proposal.
No ceasefire?
Putin’s proposal for direct talks with Ukraine got here hours after main European powers demanded on Saturday in Kyiv that Putin comply with an unconditional 30-day ceasefire or face “huge” new sanctions.
Putin dismissed what he mentioned was the try by some European powers to put down “ultimatums”.
Russia, Putin mentioned, had proposed a number of ceasefires, together with a moratorium on placing power services, an Easter ceasefire and most just lately the 72-hour truce throughout the celebrations marking 80 years since victory in World Warfare Two.
(From L) German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk give a joint press convention after their assembly within the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Could 10, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Each Russia and Ukraine accused one another of violating the short-term truce proposals, together with the Could 8-10 ceasefire.
On Sunday, Russia launched a drone assault on Kyiv and different components of Ukraine, Ukrainian officers mentioned. There have been no quick reviews of accidents or injury.
Putin mentioned that he doesn’t rule out that in his proposed talks in Turkey either side will agree on “some new truces, a brand new ceasefire,” however one that may be step one in the direction of a “sustainable” peace.
Peace?
Putin, whose forces have superior over the previous 12 months, has stood agency in his circumstances for ending the struggle.
In June 2024, he mentioned that Ukraine should formally drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the whole thing of the territory of 4 Ukrainian areas claimed by Russia.
Russian officers have additionally proposed that the U.S. recognise Russia’s management over about one fifth of Ukraine and demanded that Ukraine stays impartial although Moscow has mentioned it’s not against Kyiv’s ambitions to affix the European Union.
Putin particularly talked about the 2022 draft deal which Russia and Ukraine negotiated shortly after the Russian invasion of February 2022.
Below that draft, a duplicate of which Reuters has seen, Ukraine ought to comply with everlasting neutrality in return for worldwide safety ensures from the 5 everlasting members of the U.N. Safety Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the USA.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks throughout a press convention after the Convention of Coalition of the keen with European leaders within the grounds of the Mariynsky Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine on Could 10, 2025.
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“It was not Russia that broke off negotiations in 2022. It was Kyiv,” Putin mentioned. “Russia is able to negotiate with none preconditions.”
He thanked China, Brazil, African and Center Japanese nations and the USA for his or her efforts to mediate.
Trump, who says he desires to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly mentioned he desires to finish the “massacre” of the Ukraine struggle which his administration casts as a proxy struggle between the USA and Russia.
Former U.S. President Joe Biden, Western European leaders and Ukraine solid the invasion as an imperial-style land seize and repeatedly vowed to defeat Russian forces.
Putin casts the struggle as a watershed second in Moscow’s relations with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Soviet Union fell in 1991 by enlarging NATO and encroaching on what he considers Moscow’s sphere of affect, together with Ukraine.