Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday he believed the war in Ukraine was nearing its end, striking a notably different tone just hours after he had vowed victory at Russia’s most muted Victory Day parade in years.
“I think that the matter is coming to an end,” Putin told reporters at the Kremlin, referring to the Russia-Ukraine war, the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two. He said he was open to negotiating new security arrangements for Europe and named Germany’s former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder as his preferred interlocutor.
The comments followed a pared-back 9 May military parade marking the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany, traditionally one of Russia’s most important national events. Instead of tanks, missiles and intercontinental ballistic systems rolling through Red Square, large screens displayed videos of Russian military hardware in action. The holiday commemorates the estimated 27 million Soviet citizens killed during World War Two.
Putin, who has ruled Russia as president or prime minister since 1999, blamed what he called “globalist” Western leaders for the origins of the conflict. He said the West had promised that NATO would not expand eastward after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, but later sought to draw Ukraine closer to the European Union.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 triggered the deepest crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The Kremlin has said peace talks facilitated by the administration of US President Donald Trump are currently on hold, and Putin has repeatedly said Russia will fight until it achieves all of its stated war aims in what it calls a “special military operation”.
Russian forces have now been fighting in Ukraine for more than four years, longer than the Soviet Union’s involvement in World War Two. The conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people, devastated large parts of Ukraine, and strained Russia’s roughly USD 3 trillion economy. Relations between Russia and Europe are at their worst since the Cold War.
Moscow has failed to seize the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv’s troops have fallen back to a network of heavily fortified cities. Russian advances have slowed this year, though Moscow controls just under one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.
After both sides accused each other of breaching unilateral ceasefires in recent days, Trump announced a three-day truce from Saturday to Monday, which was supported by both Moscow and Kyiv. Russia and Ukraine 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,” Trump told reporters in Washington, adding he would like to see the ceasefire extended. There were no immediate reports of violations from either side. |
