Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that the war in Ukraine was coming to an end, signaling for the first time a willingness to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky outside Russian territory if a comprehensive peace deal had already been reached. The remarks came hours after a scaled-down Victory Day parade in Moscow and the first day of a three-day U.S.-brokered truce that both sides almost immediately accused each other of violating.
Putin says the end of the Ukraine war is near
Speaking to reporters after Saturday’s Victory Day parade, Putin said the conflict, now in its fifth year and widely considered Europe’s deadliest war since World War II, was moving towards a resolution.
“I think the matter is coming to an end,” Putin told reporters, adding that the situation remained serious. “I think it’s coming to an end, but it’s still a serious thing.
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The Russian president lashed out at Western nations for their continued military support for Kiev, saying their expectations of Russia’s collapse had turned out to be unfounded. “They spent months waiting for Russia to suffer a crushing defeat, for its statehood to collapse. It didn’t work. And then they got stuck in a rut and now they can’t get out of it.”
Putin signals willingness to meet Zelensky in a third country
In remarks that represent a remarkable shift in tone, Putin indicated he would be prepared to meet Zelensky in a third country, but only after a final peace deal is fully negotiated and ready for signature.
“I once again heard that the Ukrainian side and Zelensky are ready for a personal meeting. We have heard this before. We never refused, I never refused. If they propose a meeting, those who want to meet can travel to Moscow,” Putin said. “We can also meet in a third country, but only after there is a final agreement on a peace agreement, which has to be long-term. Then we can meet to sign something.”
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He added: “This should be the end point, not the negotiations themselves.”
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who attended the Moscow events, said he had delivered a message from Zelensky to Putin, saying the Ukrainian president was ready to meet the Russian leader “in any format”.
Putin named Gerhard Schröder as the preferred European negotiating partner
Asked if he was willing to engage in peace talks with European nations, Putin made a striking choice as his preferred partner. “For me personally, former chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Schröder is preferable,” he said.
The proposal is likely to raise skepticism across Europe. Schröder, who served as German chancellor from 1998 to 2005, has long-standing personal ties to Putin and has been closely linked to the Nord Stream pipeline projects. In 2022, following a large-scale Russian invasion, Zelensky publicly called Schröder “disgusting” after the former chancellor met with Putin and expressed support for Russia’s position.
How the three-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine came about
Putin gave an account of the diplomatic process that led to US President Donald Trump announcing a three-day ceasefire from May 9 to 11 on Friday.
According to Putin, Russia was increasingly concerned that Ukrainian strikes during the Victory Day period could threaten foreign diplomatic missions in Kyiv, given the proximity of command and decision-making centers to embassy buildings. Moscow subsequently consulted with China, India and the United States.
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“We started working with our main partners and friends, especially our friends from the People’s Republic of China, India and some other countries, including the US administration,” Putin said. “We simply presented to our friends, colleagues and partners a picture of what the situation could develop into.”
He said those discussions led directly to Trump proposing a cease-fire and a simultaneous exchange of 1,000 prisoners from each side. “We immediately agreed to this proposal, especially because, in my opinion, it was fully justified, motivated by respect for our joint victory over Nazism and clearly humanitarian in nature,” Putin said.
Announcing the deal on his social network Truth, Trump wrote: “Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly and hard-fought war.”
The truce holds tenuously as both sides trade accusations
The first day of the ceasefire was marked by mutual accusations of violations, with drone activity continuing and civilian casualties reported on both sides, although no major strikes were confirmed. The Kremlin said there were no plans to extend the ceasefire beyond the agreed three days.
Putin also noted that Russia submitted a prisoner exchange list to Ukraine on May 5, listing 500 Ukrainian soldiers held in Russian custody, but said Moscow had yet to receive a firm response from Kyiv.
A scaled-down Victory Day parade reflects the weight of war
Saturday’s Victory Day parade in Moscow was the most restricted in nearly two decades. There was no military equipment on display and the list of foreign leaders in attendance was remarkably thin, limited to the heads of Belarus, Malaysia, Laos, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The contrast with last year, when Chinese President Xi Jinping attended as an important guest, was sharp.
Explaining the absence of military equipment as a deliberate operational decision rather than a security measure, Putin said Russian forces must remain focused on what he described as the “decisive defeat of the enemy” in Ukraine.
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Addressing troops at a parade that also included North Korean military units, Putin drew on the memory of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany to outline his current war aims. “The great act of the generation of winners today inspires soldiers who fulfill the objectives of a special military operation. They are confronted with an aggressive force armed and supported by the entire NATO bloc. And despite this, our heroes are moving forward. I firmly believe that our cause is just.”
The speech was met with a muted reception in parts of Moscow. Internet blackouts imposed by Russian authorities citing the threat of Ukrainian cyberattacks have contributed to a sense of fatigue among some residents. One Moscow economist, a 36-year-old woman named Elena, summed up the mood when asked how she felt about Victory Day. “Nothing,” she told a reporter. “I need internet and I don’t have it.”
Russia’s War in Ukraine: Where Things Stand
Russian forces have so far failed to seize the entire Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces have been pushed back into a line of heavily fortified towns. Moscow currently controls less than a fifth of Ukraine’s territory.
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Progress has slowed in 2026, and the war has now killed hundreds of thousands of people on both sides, while devastating large parts of Ukraine and putting a heavy strain on the Russian economy. Russia’s relations with Europe remain at their lowest level since the Cold War.
U.S.-brokered talks to end the conflict have seen limited progress since February, when Washington’s diplomatic focus shifted to confronting Iran.
