Ukraine ‘ready’ for direct talks if Putin agrees to 30-day ceasefire
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expects Moscow to commit to a 30-day ceasefire starting on Monday and that Kyiv was “ready to meet”.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expects Moscow to commit to a 30-day ceasefire starting on Monday and that Kyiv was “ready” for direct talks with Russia.
“There is no point in continuing the killing even for a single day. We expect Russia to confirm a ceasefire - full, lasting and reliable - starting tomorrow, May 12, and Ukraine is ready to meet,” Zelensky said on social media.
Zelensky also spoke hopefully about Russia considering to end the three-year-old war, which started with Moscow’s 2022 invasion.
“It is a positive sign that the Russians have finally begun to consider ending the war,” Zelensky said.
“The entire world has been waiting for this for a very long time. And the very first step in truly ending any war is a ceasefire.”
Earlier, Putin had proposed direct negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine in the coming days but did not address a 30-day ceasefire proposal drawn up hours earlier by European allies of Kyiv, reportedly with US backing.
Speaking at the Kremlin in the early hours of Sunday, Putin proposed direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on May 15 – hours after Kyiv and the leaders of France, Germany, Britain and Poland had called for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire to start Monday.
“We propose to the Kyiv authorities to resume the talks that they broke off in 2022, and, I emphasise, without any preconditions,” Putin said.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held direct talks in Istanbul in the first weeks of the conflict, but failed to agree to halt the fighting, which has been raging ever since.
“We propose to start (negotiations) without delay on Thursday May 15 in Istanbul,” Putin said, adding that he would talk to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan soon to ask his help to facilitate the talks.
Putin said he was “committed to serious negotiations with Ukraine” and that he wanted talks to “eliminate the root causes of the conflict and to establish a long-lasting peace”.
Russia’s references to the “root causes” of the conflict typically refer to alleged grievances with Kyiv and the West that Moscow has put forward as justification for launching the offensive in February 2022.
They include pledges to “de-Nazify” Ukraine, protect Russian speakers in the country’s east, push back against NATO expansion and stop Ukraine’s westward geopolitical drift.
Kyiv and the West have rejected all of them, saying Russia’s offensive is nothing more than an imperial-style land grab.
“We do not exclude that during these talks we will be able to agree on some new ceasefire,” Putin said.
But he also accused Ukraine’s Western backers of wanting to “continue war with Russia” and – without mentioning the specific Ukraine-European proposal for a 30-day ceasefire – slammed European “ultimatums” and “anti-Russian rhetoric”.
‘NOT ENOUGH’: MACRON SLAMS PUTIN
Vladimir Putin’s proposal for direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, after Kyiv and its European allies called for a 30-day ceasefire, is “not enough”, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday.
“An unconditional ceasefire is not preceded by negotiations, by definition,” Macron told reporters as he stepped off a train in the Polish city of Przemysl on his return from a trip to Ukraine, adding that Putin was “looking for a way out, but he still wants to buy time”.
Western allies have repeatedly accused Putin of delaying tactics with regards to any potential bid to end the conflict in Ukraine, which has dragged on since February 2022.
Asked if this was another such example, Macron replied: “Yes, it is.”
‘GREAT DAY FOR RUSSIA AND UKRAINE’: TRUMP DECLARES
US President Donald Trump said Sunday he will “continue to work with both sides” to end the conflict in Ukraine, following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal for direct talks with Kyiv and calls from European leaders for a ceasefire.
“A potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, without specifying what he was referring to.
“Think of the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be saved as this never ending “bloodbath” hopefully comes to an end... I will continue to work with both sides to make sure that it happens.”
EUROPEAN LEADERS SHOW SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE
Putin’s address in the Kremlin came hours after French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk gathered in Kyiv in a symbolic show of support for Ukraine.
Together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, they pressed Russia on Saturday to accept a 30-day unconditional ceasefire starting Monday, threatening Moscow with new sanctions if it did not comply.
The United States and other countries back the proposal, they said.
“Following the Coalition of the Willing meeting in Kyiv, all five leaders had a fruitful call with (Trump) focused on peace efforts,” Andriy Sybiga said in a post on X.
The leaders were in Ukraine for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky, vowing to ratchet up pressure on Russia until it agreed a ceasefire in the three-year war.
The four countries, part of an alliance Britain and France have called “the coalition of the willing”, said in a joint statement they were “ready to support peace talks as soon as possible”.
The Kremlin has shown no signs of halting its invasion of Ukraine, despite US President Donald Trump pushing for a ceasefire, and warned earlier there could be no truce unless the West halted arms deliveries to Kyiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a 30-day truce proposed by Washington and Kyiv in March, instead declaring two brief pauses in fighting that Ukraine has accused Moscow of violating.
Russia will face much tougher sanctions if it refuses a 30-day ceasefire demanded by the West, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned.
If President Vladimir Putin does not agree to the truce, “there will be a massive hardening of sanctions and the massive aid to Ukraine will continue – politically, of course, but also financially and militarily,” Merz said in an interview published on Saturday by the Bild daily.
“We agree with the US government, with Donald Trump. We are demanding a 30-day ceasefire so that peace negotiations can be prepared during this period,” he said.
“The ball is now in Putin’s court. Putin must respond to this offer.”
In an interview with the ABC news channel on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said arms deliveries from Ukraine’s allies would have to stop before Russia would agree to a ceasefire.
A truce would otherwise be an “advantage for Ukraine” at a time when “Russian troops are advancing … in quite a confident way” on the front, Peskov said, adding that Ukraine was “not ready for immediate negotiations”.
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