By Olivier Acuña Barba •
Published: 11 May 2025 • 11:04
• 2 minutes read
Following pressure from UK and EU leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin today, Sunday, proposed direct peace talks with Ukraine on May 15th in Istanbul, an initiative his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, accepted, but Moscow must agree to a ceasefire.
Putin announced his invitation for talks to end the three-year war in a rare televised late-night speech from the Kremlin, in which the Russian leader assured his government is seeking “serious negotiations” aimed at moving toward a lasting, strong peace.”
However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said Moscow would “have to think this through” and warned that “trying to pressure us is quite useless”, BBC reported.
Putin sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, launching a war that has left hundreds of thousands of soldiers killed in the deadliest armed conflict between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
No mention of a truce
Without a word regarding a 30-day ceasefire, Putin did “not rule out” the possibility that the talks could result in a “new truce” between Russia and Ukraine.
“We are proposing that Kyiv resume direct negotiations without any preconditions,” Putin said in a televised statement from the Kremlin that began after 1:30 a.m. on Sunday (2230 GMT Saturday). “We offer the Kyiv authorities to resume negotiations already on Thursday, in Istanbul.”
Zelensky, in a statement on the social media website X, said Putin’s invitation was “a positive sign that the Russians have finally begun to consider ending the war”, but “the very first step in truly ending any war is a ceasefire.”
No point in more deaths
“There is no point in continuing the killing even for a single day. We expect Russia to confirm a complete, lasting, and reliable ceasefire starting tomorrow, May 12th, and Ukraine is ready to meet,” he added.
On Saturday, the heads of state of the UK, France, Germany and Poland arrived in Kyiv to meet with Zelensky. Their visit was viewed as a symbolic response to the more than 20 leaders who joined Putin in Moscow for Russia’s Victory Day commemorations on Friday.
Following their meeting with Zelensky, they held a news conference, urging Russia to agree to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine starting Monday, warning that if Moscow refused, “new and massive” sanctions would be placed.
