Speaking with Russian state television on Monday, Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin said he was open to the idea of bilateral talks with Ukraine, marking a complete turnaround from his prior position that he would not negotiate directly with the “regime in Kyiv” until President Volodymyr Zelensky stepped down.
The last time delegations from Moscow and Kyiv spoke directly was immediately after the start of Russia’s unprovoked invasion in February 2022.
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“We have always talked about this, that we have a positive attitude towards any peace initiatives. We hope that representatives of the Kyiv regime will feel the same way,” Putin told state TV interviewer Pavel Zarubin.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, later confirmed to reporters: “When the president said that it was possible to discuss the issue of not striking civilian targets, including bilaterally, the president had in mind negotiations and discussions with the Ukrainian side.”
US President Donald Trump, who repeatedly had boasted on the campaign trail last year that he would end the war in “24 hours”, has become increasing frustrated that the task was more difficult than he may have initially thought. As a result, he has been putting pressure on both countries to come to at least some kind of an agreement.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on April 12, he said that at some point those in Moscow and Kyiv would have to “put up or shut up.”
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A Moscow-proposed ceasefire for the Easter holiday went nowhere, as both sides went tit-for-tat on counterstrikes as each side accused the other of breaking the temporary truce. Zelensky on Monday proposed a 30-day ceasefire, to which the Kremlin has yet to respond.
On Friday, Trump had told a press gathering, “My whole life has been one big negotiation, and I know when people are playing us, and I know when they’re not, and I have to see an enthusiasm to want to end it… I think I see it from both sides.”
Already, Ukraine negotiators are set to travel to London on Wednesday for ceasefire negotiations, Zelensky announced Monday.
“Ukraine, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States, we are ready to move forward as constructively as possible,” Zelensky said in a post on social media.
The meeting is expected to focus on a proposed peace plan backed by Trump.
The Kremlin has made it clear that their two deal-breakers are: (1) ceding the Crimea, which the Russian annexed illegally in 2014, and (2) that Ukraine would not be considered for NATO membership.
Zelensky has long held that Ukraine would not agree to any relinquishing of its sovereign territory in negotiations.