Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that he believes the war in Ukraine is \u201ccoming to an end\u201d, hours after using Moscow\u2019s Victory Day parade to defend Russia\u2019s military campaign and slamming Western support for Kyiv.<\/p>\n
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Putin made the remarks after Russia held its smallest Victory Day celebration in years, with no tanks or missile systems displayed on Red Square for the first time in nearly two decades.<\/p>\n
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The Russian leader also said he would meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a third country if both sides first reached a long-term peace agreement.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI think the matter is coming to an end,\u201d Putin told reporters in Moscow after the parade.<\/p>\n
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The comments came during a three-day ceasefire announced by Russia and Ukraine after pressure from US President Donald Trump, who said both countries had agreed to pause fighting and exchange 1,000 prisoners each.<\/p>\n
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Despite the truce, both sides accused each other of violating the ceasefire through drone strikes and shelling.<\/p>\n
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Putin repeated long-standing Kremlin claims that Western countries had fuelled the conflict by backing Ukraine politically and militarily.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThey spent months waiting for Russia to suffer a crushing defeat,\u201d Putin said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t work out.\u201d<\/p>\n
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He described the war as a \u201cserious matter\u201d but signalled that Moscow was prepared for future negotiations over European security arrangements.<\/p>\n
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Putin named former German Chancellor Gerhard Schr\u00f6der as his preferred European negotiating partner. Schr\u00f6der has maintained close ties with the Kremlin and worked for Russian energy companies after leaving office.<\/p>\n
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The proposal drew criticism in previous years from Ukraine and several European governments because of Schr\u00f6der\u2019s relationship with Putin and his support for projects such as the Nord Stream gas pipelines.<\/p>\n
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Zelenskyy has repeatedly called for direct talks with Putin since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.<\/p>\n
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On Saturday, Putin said a meeting with Zelenskyy would only happen once negotiators completed a final peace framework.<\/p>\n
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\u201cA meeting in a third country is possible, but only after a peace treaty is finalised,\u201d Putin said.<\/p>\n
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The Kremlin staged a reduced Victory Day parade under heavy security following concerns that Ukraine could target central Moscow with drones during the event.<\/p>\n
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Large military vehicles were absent from Red Square and several foreign media organisations were denied access to the ceremony.<\/p>\n
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Only a small group of foreign leaders attended this year\u2019s event, including representatives from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia and Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n
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For the first time, North Korean troops took part in the parade after Pyongyang sent forces to support Russian operations in the Kursk region, according to Russian officials.<\/p>\n
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In his speech earlier in the day, Putin framed the war as a fight against what he called \u201can aggressive force armed and supported by the entire NATO bloc\u201d.<\/p>\n
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\u201cVictory has always been and will be ours,\u201d he told troops gathered in Red Square.<\/p>\n
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The parade marked the Soviet Union\u2019s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II and honoured the estimated 27 million Soviet citizens killed during the war.<\/p>\n
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Meanwhile, Zelenskyy marked Europe Day in Kyiv and said Ukraine remained part of the \u201cEuropean family\u201d.<\/p>\n
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\u201cFrom the first days of the full-scale war until today, Europe has stood with Ukraine,\u201d Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n
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The war has now entered its fifth year. Russia controls close to one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, though Russian advances slowed during the past year.<\/p>\n
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Moscow has failed to capture all of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces continue to hold fortified defensive lines.<\/p>\n
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European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa said last week there was \u201cpotential\u201d for future talks between Europe and Russia over the continent\u2019s security structure.<\/p>\n
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HT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that he believes the war in Ukraine is \u201ccoming to an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[4416,184,158,42278,113,4335,42279,238,717,41910,1887,3399],"class_list":{"0":"post-79333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-helsinki","8":"tag-ceasefire","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-finland","11":"tag-gerhard-schroder","12":"tag-helsinki","13":"tag-moscow","14":"tag-prisoner-swap","15":"tag-russia","16":"tag-ukraine-war","17":"tag-victory-day","18":"tag-vladimir-putin","19":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116552313397560619","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}