MOSCOW - Russia's President Vladimir Putin said earlier Sunday that his country is committed to talks with Kyiv about ending the war and suggested that the next discussion begin in Turkey on May 15.
He said he was scheduled to speak with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and hopes to hold talks in Istanbul next week later Sunday. He said Russia has no premise.
Putin said Ukraine has stayed away from such negotiations in the past and broke the ceasefire agreement, despite the accusation of attacks in the past three ceasefires. The language he uses expresses his desire for serious negotiation of long-term consequences, including long-term peace.
Putin's comments came on the last day of a three-day ceasefire announced by Russia, almost in the face of leaders in Britain, France, Poland and Germany that threatened to increase sanctions on the state if he did not accept Monday's unconditional ceasefire, thus increasing sanctions on the state.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz raised the demand for an unconditional ceasefire in a news briefing, including more than 30 countries that have committed to strengthening Ukraine. They also joined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday at the Memorial Hall of the Fallen Ukrainian Soldiers in the Ukrainian Independence Square.
Leaders said the proposal to start a ceasefire on Monday was supported by U.S. President Donald Trump, who briefed it over the phone earlier in the day.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ceasefire is intended to prevent combat on land, sea and air. The force of world leaders shows efforts to convince Moscow to agree to a truce, which would allow the end of peace talks in the three-year war.
Keith Kellogg, who retired from Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, said on Saturday that the ceasefire could “start the process of ending the largest and longest war in Europe since World War II.”
Kellogg invited Trump's famous quote "Stay Killing Now" - to support his own statement in support of a 30-day ceasefire.
Putin had previously said he hoped Ukraine would withdraw from four regions (Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson) and that Russia had illegally annexed shortly after its invasion in February 2022, and he also insisted that Ukraine promised to be unwilling to join NATO and limited Russia's size on the scale of its army and its culture and language on the scale of its Russian army.
Putin said last week that Russia has enough power and resources to bring the logical conclusions of the Ukrainian war to logic, although he hopes that there is no need for nuclear weapons.