Putin Says He Believes Russia-Ukraine War Is Nearing an End
With the war in Ukraine still grinding on, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he believed the conflict was nearing its conclusion, a striking comment delivered only hours after he had promised victory at Moscow's most subdued Victory Day...
With the war in Ukraine still grinding on, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he believed the conflict was nearing its conclusion, a striking comment delivered only hours after he had promised victory at Moscow’s most subdued Victory Day parade in years.
“I think that the matter is coming to an end,” Mr Putin told reporters, referring to the Russia-Ukraine war, the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two.
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He also said he was open to discussing a new European security framework, adding that his preferred interlocutor would be former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine set off the gravest rupture in ties between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when fears of nuclear confrontation brought the world to the edge.
Mr Putin has repeatedly insisted Russia will continue fighting until it secures all of its objectives in what Moscow calls the “special military operation”. He spoke in the Kremlin after once again laying out his interpretation of how the war began.
He accused “globalist” Western leaders of breaking promises that NATO would not move east after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and said they later sought to pull Ukraine into the orbit of the European Union.
His remarks came just hours after ceremonies marking the 9 May holiday that honours the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two.
Soldiers and sailors, some of whom have served in Ukraine, marched in the parade
The yearly commemoration honours the 27 million Soviet citizens who died in that war.
Rather than the usual display of intercontinental ballistic missiles, tanks and missile systems rumbling over Red Square’s cobblestones, giant screens facing the Kremlin walls showed video of Russian military equipment in action.
Russian troops have been fighting in Ukraine for well over four years.
That exceeds the time Soviet forces spent fighting in World War Two, referred to in Russia as the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45.
War in Europe
Mr Putin, who has held power in Russia as president or prime minister since the final day of 1999, is confronting a swell of unease in Moscow over the war in Ukraine, which has killed hundreds of thousands, left large parts of Ukraine devastated, and strained Russia’s $3 trillion economy.
Ties between Russia and Europe have sunk to their lowest point since the chilliest years of the Cold War.
Russian forces have yet to seize all of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv’s troops have fallen back to a defensive belt of fortress cities.
Russian advances have slowed this year, although Moscow holds just under one fifth of Ukraine’s territory.
Watch: Russia’s Victory Day parade held in Moscow
After Russia and Ukraine accused one another of breaching separate unilateral ceasefires they had announced in recent days, US President Donald Trump said a three-day truce from Saturday to Monday had been backed by both the Kremlin and Kyiv.
The two sides also agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners.
“I’d like to see it stop. Russia-Ukraine – it’s the worst thing since World War Two in terms of life. Twenty-five thousand young soldiers every month. It’s crazy,” Mr Trump told reporters in Washington.
He said he would “like to see a big extension” of the ceasefire. No violations of the truce were reported by either Moscow or Kyiv.
Talks with Schroeder?
European Council President Antonio Costa said last week he saw “potential” for the EU to engage Russia in negotiations and to discuss what Europe’s future security architecture might look like.
When asked whether he was prepared to hold talks with European representatives, Mr Putin said Mr Schroeder would be his preferred choice.
“For me personally, the former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr. Schroeder, is preferable,” Mr Putin said.
European leaders say Russia must be defeated in Ukraine and portray Mr Putin as a war criminal and autocrat who, in their view, could eventually threaten a NATO member if he is allowed to prevail.
Russia rejects those assertions as nonsense.
Mr Putin, who sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, has cast European governments as warmongers for arming and supporting Kyiv with tens of billions of dollars in weapons, intelligence and other aid.
Asked about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr Putin said a meeting could happen only after a durable peace agreement had been reached.