On Sunday, only hours after Kyiv and European leaders demanded an unconditional 30-day ceasefire to begin on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that direct talks with Ukraine be held in Istanbul on May 15.
Putin’s statement, which was given in the Kremlin around one in the morning, outlined the counter-proposal for new Russia-Ukraine talks, but it did not specifically address that call.
“We propose to the Kyiv authorities to resume the talks that they broke off in 2022, and, I emphasise, without any preconditions,” Vladimir Putin stated.
If Russia rejected the plan, Ukraine’s leaders, together with those of Britain, France, Germany, and Poland, threatened Moscow in Kyiv on Saturday with new sanctions and military assistance for Ukraine.
In the initial weeks of the crisis, Russian and Ukrainian mediators met directly in Istanbul but were unable to reach a consensus to stop the violence, which has continued ever since.
Putin stated that he would speak with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shortly to request his assistance in facilitating the discussions. “We propose to start (negotiations) without delay on Thursday, May 15 in Istanbul,” Putin added.
According to Putin, he is “committed to serious negotiations with Ukraine” and wants to “eliminate the root causes of the conflict and to establish a long-lasting peace” between the two countries.
The “root causes” of the conflict that Russia usually refers to are purported grievances with Kyiv and the West, which Moscow has used as an excuse for starting the war in February 2022.
These include promises to “de-Nazify” Ukraine, defend Russian speakers in the east of the country, oppose NATO’s expansion, and halt Ukraine’s geopolitical drift westward.
All of them have been rejected by Kyiv and the West, who claim that Russia’s offensive is really an imperial-style territory grab.
Since Russia started the conflict, millions of people have been displaced and tens of thousands have been killed.
Although Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov had earlier told CNN that Moscow would have to take this fresh ceasefire proposal into consideration, Putin did not specifically mention it in his statements on Saturday.
Ukraine claims Russian forces have repeatedly broken the three-day ceasefire that Russia unilaterally imposed on Saturday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of its triumph over Nazi Germany.
“We do not exclude that during these talks we will be able to agree on some new ceasefire,” Putin stated.
He also criticized European “ultimatums” and “anti-Russian rhetoric” and charged that Ukraine’s Western supporters wanted to “continue war with Russia” without referring to the specific Ukraine-European ceasefire agreement.
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