Vladimir Putin has said he thinks the Ukraine war is coming to an end – comments that came just hours after he vowed to defeat Ukraine in Moscow’s biggest Victory Day parade in years.
“I think the matter is coming to an end,” Putin told reporters about the Russia-Ukraine war, Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. He said he would be willing to negotiate a new security arrangement for Europe and that his preferred negotiator would be former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
Putin, who has ruled Russia as president or prime minister since his last days in 1999, is facing a wave of concern in Moscow about the war in Ukraine, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, devastated much of Ukraine and decimated 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 capture the entire Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, where Kiev’s forces have been pushed back to a line of fortified cities. Russia’s advances have slowed this year, although Moscow controls only a fifth of Ukrainian territory.
Speaking on Saturday, Putin criticized Western support for Kiev, as the first day of the Russia-Ukraine ceasefire was marked by mutual accusations of violations.
“They (the West) started escalating confrontation with Russia, which continues even today.
“I think it (the war) is coming to an end but it is still a serious matter.
“They spent many months waiting for Russia to suffer a crushing defeat and lose its statehood. It yielded no results.
“And then they get stuck in that groove and now they can’t get out of it.”
Putin said he was ready to meet Volodymyr Zelensky in a third country only after all conditions for a potential peace deal had been finalized – sticking to his usual position in meetings with his Ukrainian counterpart.
“This should be the end point, not a negotiation,” he said.
Asked whether he was willing to engage in dialogue with the Europeans, Putin said: “For me personally, Mr. Schröder, the former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, is better.”
Many in Ukraine and Europe will be skeptical of Schröder’s involvement given his background as a close friend of Putin and his history of ties to Russian business and projects such as the Nord Stream gas pipeline. In 2022, after the war broke out, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Schröder “disgusting” for meeting Putin and speaking out in favor of the Russian ruler.
Russia, Ukraine and Donald Trump announced on Friday that a three-day ceasefire between the two sides will come into effect from Saturday. Moscow and Kiev accused Moscow of violations as drone activity continued and civilian casualties occurred on both sides.
The Kremlin said there were no plans to prolong the ceasefire. The warring parties also agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners during the ceasefire. Putin said on Saturday that Russia had not yet received any proposal from Ukraine on the exchange.
The Victory Day parade was much smaller than in previous years, with no military hardware on display for the first time in nearly two decades and only a handful of foreign dignitaries present – most of them leaders of Russia’s close allies.
A week earlier there were clear signs of desperation on the Russian side that the parade should not be disrupted by Ukrainian attacks. Moscow threatened to bomb the center of Kiev, including foreign embassies, warning foreign missions to evacuate their staff.
For his part, Zelensky – after earlier issuing a “decree” allowing the Moscow parade to go ahead – celebrated Saturday as Europe Day, which commemorates the founding of the European Union. He said that Ukraine was “an inseparable part of the European family”.
“From the first days of full-scale war to today, Europe has stood with Ukraine,” Zelensky said. “And this is not charity – this is a choice made by Europeans: to stand on the same side of the brave and the strong.”
Unlike high-profile visitors including China’s Xi Jinping during last year’s event, only the leaders of Belarus, Malaysia, Laos, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan were listed to attend Putin’s parade.
Now in its fifth year, the war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and turned into Europe’s deadliest war since the Second World War.
European Council President Antonio Costa said last week that he believed there was “possibility” for the EU to hold talks with Russia and discuss the future of Europe’s security architecture.
With Reuters and Agence France-Presse
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