Russian President Vladimir Putin held direct negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul on May 15, “no prerequisites” to achieve “lasting peace” and “eliminate the root causes of the three-year conflict.”

The proposal, delivered earlier on Sunday, comes hours after leaders in Ukraine, France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom called for a 30-day ceasefire that began on Monday.

Leaders who met in Kiev said their call was supported by U.S. President Donald Trump and threatened to impose “massive” sanctions on Moscow if it disagrees with their plans.

Instead of making this call clear in his comments, Putin attacked Europe's "last-to-complete" and "anti-Russian rhetoric" and then outlined the anti-possibilities of the new Russian-Ukrainian negotiations.

"We recommend Kiev resume direct negotiations without any premise," the Russian president told reporters. "We provide the Kiev authorities with the resumption of negotiations in Istanbul on Thursday."

Putin said he will talk to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan later on Sunday about promoting talks.

Ukraine did not immediately respond to the proposal.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had previously said he was ready for peace talks, but only after the ceasefire.

Russia began with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022, killing hundreds of thousands of soldiers and triggering the worst confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.

In the first weeks of the conflict, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held direct talks in Istanbul but failed to agree to stop the fight.

Putin said Russia is proposing a restart of negotiations to “eliminate the root causes of conflict” and “achieving a long-term, lasting peace recovery” rather than simply stopping to re-bound.

"We do not rule out that in these negotiations we will be able to reach a consensus on some new ceasefires," he added.

Putin's troops have made progress over the past year, facing public and private pressure from Trump, as well as warnings from European powers to end the war.

But he offered little concessions and was determined to end the war.

Putin said in June 2024 that Ukraine must formally abandon NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entire territory of the four Ukrainian regions claimed by Russia.

Russian officials also suggested that the United States recognizes about one-fifth of Russia's control over Ukraine and demands that Ukraine remain neutral, although Moscow said it was not opposed to Kiev's ambition to join the EU.

Putin specifically mentioned that Russia and Ukraine had negotiated shortly after the invasion in February 2022.

Under the draft, Ukraine should agree to permanent neutrality in exchange for international security assurances of five permanent members of the UN Security Council: China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States.

"It's not Russia that broke the negotiations in 2022. It's Kiev," Putin said. "Russia is ready to negotiate without any prerequisites."

He thanked China, Brazil, African and Middle Eastern countries for their efforts to conduct mediation.

Putin added that Russia has filed several ceasefires, including a moratorium on eye-catching energy facilities, an Easter ceasefire and a recent 72-hour truce in the 80-year celebration since the victory of World War II, but accused Ukraine of repeatedly violating the ceasefire.

He said that during the May ceasefire, Ukraine used 524 aerial drones, 45 sea drones, and some Western missiles to attack Russia, and Russia carried out five attacks on the Russian region.

Ukraine also accused Russia of repeatedly violating its ceasefire.

Zelenskyy said earlier on Saturday that France, Germany, Poland and the UK's visit to Kiev sent "very important signals".

After the meeting, five leaders issued a statement asking for a ceasefire from Monday to "last for 30 days" to make room for efforts to end the war.

"A unconditional ceasefire cannot be subject to any conditions," the statement said. "If Russia requires such conditions, it can only be regarded as an effort to extend the war and undermine diplomacy."

French President Emmanuel Macron said the United States would lead the surveillance of the proposed ceasefire with the support of European countries and threatened "massive sanctions between Europeans and Americans...prepared and coordinated" if Russia violated the truce.

Meanwhile, Trump’s retired lieutenant Keith Kellogg, a special envoy to Ukraine, said on Saturday that a “full” 30-day ceasefire, covering the attacks on air, land, ocean and infrastructure, “will begin to end the process of the largest and longest war in Europe since the World War.”

Trump said he wanted to be remembered as a peacemaker, and he repeatedly said he wanted to end the "bloody massacre" of the Ukrainian war, which his administration used as a proxy war between the United States and Russia.

Former U.S. President Joe Biden, Western European leaders and Ukraine as imperial-style land grab, repeatedly vowed to defeat the Russian army.

Putin, who treated the war as a watershed between Moscow and the West, said the Soviet Union in 1991 had expanded NATO and violated his view of Russia, including Ukraine.