Vladimir Putin suggests Ukraine war is ‘coming to an end’

Vladimir Putin has said he thinks the Ukraine war is winding down – remarks that came a few hours after he had vowed to defeat Ukraine at Moscow’s most scaled-back Victory Day parade in years.

“I think that the matter is coming to an end,” Putin told reporters of the Russia-Ukraine war, Europe’s deadliest conflict since the second world war. He said he would be willing to negotiate new security arrangements for Europe, and that his preferred negotiating partner would be Germany’s former chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

Putin, who has ruled Russia as president or prime minister since the last day of 1999, faces a wave of anxiety in Moscow about the war in Ukraine, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, left swathes of Ukraine in ruins, and drained Russia’s economy. Russia’s relations with Europe are worse than at any time since the depths of the cold war.

Russian forces have so far been unable to take the whole of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine where Kyiv’s forces have been pushed back to a line of fortress cities. Russian advances have slowed this year, though Moscow controls just under one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.

Speaking on Saturday, Putin slammed western support for Kyiv, as the first day of a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire was marked by mutual accusations of violations.

“They [the west] started ratcheting up the confrontation with Russia, which continues to this day.

“I think it [the war] is heading to an end but it’s still a serious matter.

“They spent months waiting for Russia to suffer a crushing defeat, for its statehood to collapse. It didn’t work out.

“And then they got stuck in that groove and now they can’t get out of it.”

Putin added that he was ready to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a third country only once all conditions for a potential peace agreement were settled – holding to his usual position on a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart.

“This should be the final point, not the negotiations themselves,” he said.

Asked if he was willing to engage in talks with the Europeans, Putin said: “For me personally, the former chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr Schröder, is preferable.”

Russia, Ukraine and Donald Trump on Friday announced that a three-day ceasefire between both sides would come into effect from Saturday. Moscow and Kyiv traded accusations of violations amid continued drone activity and civilian casualties on both sides.