(Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy responded guardedly on Sunday to a proposal from Russian President Vladimir Putin of rapid direct talks aimed at ending the war, saying Kyiv was willing to talk but only after Moscow agreed to a ceasefire.
Putin made his proposal in a 1:30 a.m. (2230 GMT Saturday) televised statement from the Kremlin that coincided with prime time in the U.S., where President Donald Trump has been pressing both sides to agree to a truce of at least 30 days and stop the three-year-old war.
Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker and has repeatedly promised to end the war, called it “A potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine!”
However, Putin suggested that any ceasefire was a matter for the talks he proposed for Istanbul next Thursday, May 15.
And minutes later, senior Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters the talks must take into account both an abandoned 2022 draft peace deal and the current situation on the ground – shorthand for Kyiv agreeing to permanent neutrality in return for a security guarantee and accepting that Russia controls swathes of Ukraine.
Putin sent Russia’s armed forces into Ukraine in February 2022, unleashing a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and triggered the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
With Russian forces grinding forward, the Kremlin chief has offered few, if any, concessions so far.
He proposed what he said would be “direct negotiations without any preconditions”, making no mention of the terms later set out by Ushakov.
Putin said he did not rule out both sides agreeing in Turkey on “some new truces, a new ceasefire” – but one that would be the first step towards a “sustainable” peace.
Zelenskiy said it was “a positive sign that the Russians have finally begun to consider ending the war” but that “the very first step in truly ending any war is a ceasefire.”
“We expect Russia to confirm a ceasefire – full, lasting, and reliable – starting tomorrow, May 12, and Ukraine is ready to meet,” he said.
TRUMP HOPES FOR ‘BLOODBATH’ TO END
For his part, Trump added, in his post on Truth Social: “Think of the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be saved as this never ending ‘bloodbath’ hopefully comes to an end.”
Putin’s proposal came hours after major European powers demanded on Saturday in Kyiv that Putin agree to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire or face “massive” new sanctions.
Putin dismissed what he said was an attempt to lay down “ultimatums”, and his foreign ministry spelled out that talks about the root causes of the conflict must precede discussions of a ceasefire.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Putin’s proposal for talks showed that he was looking for a way forward, but also trying to buy time.
“It’s a first step but it’s not enough,” Macron told reporters on his way back from Ukraine early on Sunday. “An unconditional ceasefire is not preceded by negotiations.”
Putin said Russia had proposed several ceasefires, including a moratorium on striking energy facilities, an Easter truce and most recently a 72-hour truce during celebrations marking 80 years since Soviet victory in World War Two.
None of these were agreed between the two sides, and each accused the other of continuing to attack in force during the supposed truce periods.
“Our proposal, as they say, is on the table,” Putin said. “The decision is now up to the Ukrainian authorities and their ‘curators’, who are guided, it seems, by their personal political ambitions, and not by the interests of their peoples.”
The Kremlin said Erdogan had told Putin in a call that he “fully supported” Putin’s proposal and was ready to host the talks in Istanbul.
Meanwhile Russia launched a drone attack on Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine, injuring one person in the region surrounding the Ukrainian capital and damaging private homes, Ukrainian officials said.
PUTIN HAS STUCK TO RUSSIA’S CONDITIONS
Putin, whose forces control one-fifth of Ukraine and are advancing, has stood firm in his conditions for ending the war despite public and private pressure from Trump and repeated warnings from European powers.
Trump has publicly shown irritation with both sides. But more recently, since signing a deal to share the proceeds of Ukrainian mineral mining, he has appeared more frustrated with Moscow.
His Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, issued a social media post suggesting this remained the case: “As President Trump has repeatedly said, stop the killing!! An unconditional 30 day ceasefire first and, during it, move into comprehensive peace discussions. Not the other way around.”
In June 2024, Putin said Ukraine must officially drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow. Russia considers Crimea, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, now irrevocably part of its own territory.
On Sunday, Putin mentioned the 2022 draft deal later cited by Ushakov.
Under that draft, a copy of which Reuters has reviewed, Ukraine would have agreed to permanent neutrality in return for international security guarantees from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
“It was not Russia that broke off negotiations in 2022. It was Kyiv,” Putin said.
Former U.S. president Joe Biden, Western European leaders and Ukraine have cast the invasion as an imperial-style land grab and repeatedly vowed to defeat Russian forces.
Putin presents the war as a watershed moment 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 influence, including Ukraine.
(Reporting by Marina Bobrova, Dmitry Antonov, Lidia Kelly, Anastasia Lyrchikova, Felix Light; Elizabeth Piper in Kyiv and Huseyin Hayatsever in Ankara; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
