Vladimir Putin has ignored calls from Western leaders for a 30-day ceasefire, instead proposing direct talks with Ukraine.
Putin, in a late-night television address, said he wanted negotiations to start in Istanbul on Thursday.
European leaders joined Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Saturday to demand a ceasefire initiative backed by Donald Trump.
Ukraine insists there must be a temporary truce before direct talks on a permanent settlement begin. However, Mr Zelensky said Putin’s comments were “a positive sign that the Russians have finally begun to consider ending the war”.
“A potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine!” US President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform shortly afterwards, without specifying what he was referring to.
He vowed to “continue to work with both sides to make sure that it happens”.
French president Emmanuel Macron later said Putin’s proposal was a “first step, but not enough”, and accused Mr Putin of delaying an end to the war.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Ukraine has not understood Vladimir Putin correctly.
She said that Putin means there should first be negotiations about the “root causes” of the conflict, and only then can talks about a ceasefire happen.
Volodymr Zelensky’s chief aide Andriy Yermak has said a 30-day ceasefire must come any next steps, following Vladimir Putin’s proposal of direct talks.
“First a 30-day ceasefire, then everything else. Russia should not disguise its desire to continue the war under verbal constructions,” Mr Yermak wrote on Telegram.
“A ceasefire is the first step towards ending the war and will confirm Russia’s readiness to end the killings.”
The Russian defence ministry said that Ukraine violated a three-day truce that concluded on Saturday more than 14,000 times, and Kyiv’s troops had made five attempts to breach Russia’s southern border, the TASS state news agency reported.
Both Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused the other of violating the May 8-10 ceasefire, which Kyiv did not agree to.
The US special envoy for the Middle East broke with long-standing protocol and used the Kremlin’s translators for three high-level meetings with Vladimir Putin, putting him at a “real disadvantage,” officials have said.
Steve Witkoff, a real estate tycoon and cryptocurrency trader, has been tasked with negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine and has met with Putin several times over recent months.
But according to a US official and two Western officials who spoke with NBC News, he did not employ his own interpreters during meetings lasting several hours on February 11, March 13 and April 11.
“If they speak to each other in Russian, he doesn’t know what they are saying,” one Western official said.
Michael McFaul, former US ambassador to Russia, called Mr Witkoff’s decision “a very bad idea” that put him at a “real disadvantage”.
“I speak Russian and have listened to Kremlin interpreters and U.S. interpreters at the same meeting, and the language is never the same,” Mr McFaul told NBC News.
A White House deputy press secretary said that Mr Witkoff “abides by all security protocols in coordination with the State Department.”
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said on Sunday that peace talks between Russia and Ukraine proposed by President Vladimir Putin will take into account the situation on the ground as well as the negotiations of 2022, the Interfax news agency reported.
Putin on Sunday proposed direct talks with Ukraine on May 15 in Istanbul.
Vladimir Putin’s proposal for direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, made in response to a 30-day ceasefire called for by Kyiv and its European allies, is “a first step, but not enough”, French president Emmanuel Macron said Sunday.
“An unconditional ceasefire is not preceded by negotiations,” Mr 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”.
Kyiv said that Moscow had launched more than 100 drones into Ukraine at night, shortly after a Russian 72-hour ceasefire had ended at midnight.
Kyiv had not reported any drone attacks since Thursday, when the Russian ceasefire came into effect, although it did accuse Moscow of violating the truce hundreds of times.
Russia also accused Ukraine of not observing the ceasefire.
“On the night of May 11 (from 2:00 am on May 11), the enemy attacked with 108 Shahed attack drones and various types of imitator drones,” Kyiv’s air force said, adding that it had downed 60 of them.
US president Donald Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker and has repeatedly promised to end the war, said a great day was dawning for Russia and Ukraine if the “bloodbath” of the war could be ended.
“A potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine!” Mr Trump said on Truth Social. “Think of the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be saved as this never ending ‘bloodbath’ hopefully comes to an end.”
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said that 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,” Mr Zelensky said, after Russian leader Vladimir Putin had proposed talks just hours earlier.
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Ukraine-Russia war live: Putin ignores calls for Ukraine ceasefire – The Telegraph
