On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested engaging in direct negotiations with Ukraine on May 15 in Turkey, with the goal of establishing a long-lasting peace, a proposal that received support from US President Donald Trump.
Back in February 2022, Putin dispatched numerous troops into Ukraine, igniting a conflict that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, marking the most severe standoff between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Putin, who has been reluctant to make significant concessions to end the conflict, stated that the discussions in Istanbul, Turkey, will focus on addressing the fundamental causes of the war and achieving a “long-term, lasting peace” instead of merely creating a temporary break for rearmament.
“We are proposing that Kyiv resume direct negotiations without any preconditions,” Putin said from the Kremlin in the early hours of Sunday. “We offer the Kyiv authorities to resume negotiations already on Thursday, in Istanbul.”
Putin said that he would speak to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan later on Sunday about facilitating the talks, which he said could lead to a ceasefire.
“Our proposal, as they say, is on the table. 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.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office and Ukraine’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on the proposal.
In a message on the social network Truth Social, Trump hailed Putin’s proposal as a positive for ending the war.
“A potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine!” Trump said. “Think of the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be saved as this never ending ‘bloodbath’ hopefully comes to an end.”
NO CEASEFIRE?
Putin’s proposal for direct talks with Ukraine 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 the attempt by some European powers to lay down “ultimatums.”
Russia, Putin said, had proposed several ceasefires, including a moratorium on striking energy facilities, an Easter ceasefire and most recently the 72-hour truce during the celebrations marking 80 years since victory in World War Two.
Both Russia and Ukraine accused each other of violating the temporary truce proposals, including the May 8-10 ceasefire.
Despite Putin’s call for peace talks, Russia on Sunday launched a drone attack on Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine, injuring one person in the region surrounding the Ukrainian capital and damaging several private homes, Ukrainian officials said.
Putin said that he does not rule out that during his proposed talks in Turkey both sides will agree on “some new truces, a new ceasefire,” but one that would be the first step towards a “sustainable” peace.
PEACE?
Putin, whose forces have advanced over the past year, has stood firm in his conditions for ending the war despite public and private pressure from Trump and repeated warnings from European powers.
In June 2024, he said that Ukraine must officially drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed by Russia.
Russian officials have also proposed that the US recognize Russia’s control over about one-fifth of Ukraine and demanded that Ukraine remains neutral though Moscow has said it is not opposed to Kyiv’s ambitions to join the European Union.
Putin specifically mentioned the 2022 draft deal which Russia and Ukraine negotiated shortly after the Russian invasion started.
Under that draft, a copy of which Reuters has seen, Ukraine should agree to permanent neutrality in return for international security guarantees from the five permanent members of the UN 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. “Russia is ready to negotiate without any preconditions.”
He thanked China, Brazil, African and Middle Eastern countries and the United States for their efforts to mediate.
Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly said he wants to end the “bloodbath” of the Ukraine war which his administration casts as a proxy war between the United States and Russia.
“I will continue to work with both sides to make sure that it happens,” Trump said in his Truth Social post on Sunday. “The USA wants to focus, instead, on Rebuilding and Trade. A BIG week upcoming!”
Former US President Joe Biden, Western European leaders and Ukraine cast the invasion as an imperial-style land grab and repeatedly vowed to defeat Russian forces.
Putin casts 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.
