FLASH
Shkruar nga PamfletiPutin added that he is ready to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky, in a third country, only after all the conditions for a possible peace deal have been agreed, maintaining his usual stance on a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared that the conflict in Ukraine is coming to an end.
Putin was speaking at the Kremlin after Russia held its first Victory Day parade in years. The May 9 national holiday celebrates the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War II and pays tribute to the 27 million Soviet citizens who lost their lives in the war.
“I think the matter is coming to an end,” Putin told reporters about the Russia-Ukraine war, the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. He said he would be willing to negotiate new security arrangements for Europe and that his preferred negotiating partner would be former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
Putin, who has led Russia as president or prime minister since the last day of 1999, faces a wave of concern in Moscow over the war in Ukraine, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, left entire areas of Ukraine in ruins and battered the Russian economy. Russia's relations with Europe are at their lowest point since the height of the Cold War.
Russian forces have so far failed to take the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian troops have retreated to a line of fortified towns. The Russian advance has slowed this year, although Moscow controls just under a fifth of Ukrainian territory.
Speaking on Saturday, Putin criticized Western support for Kiev, as the first day of a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine was marked by mutual accusations of violations.
“They [the West] started to escalate the confrontation with Russia and that continues today. I think [the war] is coming to an end, but it still remains a serious issue. They spent months waiting for Russia to suffer a devastating defeat, for its state to collapse. That didn’t happen. And then they got stuck in that approach and now they can’t get out of it,” he said, The Guardian reports.
Putin added that he is ready to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky, in a third country, only after all the conditions for a possible peace deal have been agreed, maintaining his usual stance on a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart.
"This should be the final moment, not the negotiations themselves," he said.
Asked if he was willing to engage in talks with the Europeans, Putin replied: "For me personally, the former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr. Schröder, is the favorite."
Many in Ukraine and Europe are expected to be skeptical of Schröder's involvement, given his close friendship with Putin and ties to Russian businesses and projects, such as the Nord Stream gas pipeline. In 2022, after the outbreak of war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Schröder "disgusting" for his meetings with Putin and public support for the Russian leader.
Russia, Ukraine and Donald Trump announced on Friday that a three-day ceasefire between the sides would take effect from Saturday. Moscow and Kiev traded accusations of violating the agreement, while drone attacks and civilian casualties continued on both sides.
The Kremlin said it had no plans to extend the ceasefire. The warring parties also agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners each during the ceasefire period. Putin said on Saturday that Russia had not yet received any proposals from Ukraine regarding the exchange.
The Victory Day parade was significantly smaller than in previous years. For the first time in nearly two decades, there was no display of military hardware and the ceremony was attended by only a few foreign dignitaries, mostly leaders of Russia's close allies.
During the previous week, there had been clear signals of concern from the Russian side that the parade would be hit by Ukrainian attacks. Moscow threatened to bomb the center of Kiev, including foreign embassies, warning diplomatic missions to evacuate their staff.
For his part, Zelensky, who had earlier issued a symbolic "decree" allowing the parade to take place in Moscow, marked Saturday as Europe Day, which is considered a founding day of the European Union. He said Ukraine is "an inseparable part of the European family."
"From the first days of the full-scale war to this day, Europe has stood by Ukraine. This is not charity, it is a choice made by Europeans: to stand on the same side as the brave and the strong," Zelensky said.
Only the leaders of Belarus, Malaysia, Laos, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan were reported as attending Putin's parade, in contrast to high-profile visitors such as Chinese President Xi Jinping during last year's event.
Now in its fifth year, the war has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and has become the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.
The President of the European Council, António Costa, stated last week that he believes there is "potential" for the European Union to negotiate with Russia and discuss the future of the security architecture in Europe.
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