Putin proposed that Ukraine resume direct negotiations in Istanbul without any preconditions.
On May 11, at a night press conference in the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin offered Kyiv to resume direct negotiations without any preconditions. He stated that Russia is ready to start such a dialogue already on May 15 in Istanbul – exactly where, according to him, the process was stopped on the Ukrainian side in 2022. This is reported by the Russian mass media.
Putin noted that he plans to hold a conversation with Turkish President Recep Erdogan on Sunday, in which he will ask for assistance in organizing the meeting.
“We offer the Kyiv authorities to resume the negotiations that were interrupted by them at the end of 2022. To resume direct negotiations, and, I emphasize, without any preconditions. We propose to start without delay already next Thursday, May 15, in Istanbul – where they were held before and where they were interrupted.” he declared.
In addition, Putin stated that he does not rule out the possibility of achieving a new ceasefire in the course of future negotiations. According to him, we may be talking about a “real truce”:
“We are ready for serious negotiations with Ukraine. Their meaning is to eliminate the root causes of the conflict. … We do not rule out that in the course of these negotiations it will be possible to agree on a new truce, on a new cease-fire – and a real truce… This would be the first step towards long-term stable peace.”
Also, for the first time during the entire period of the full-scale invasion, Putin publicly called the war in Ukraine a “war”:
“Yes, now there are hostilities, a war. But we are ready to talk.”
At the same time, he did not comment in any way on the initiative of the “Coalition of the Willing” regarding the 30-day truce, which will start on May 12 and has already received the support of more than 20 countries, including France, Germany, Great Britain and Poland.
After Putin’s speech, his assistant Yuriy Ushakov announced that the Russian delegation will go to Istanbul, and its composition will be announced later. At the same time, press secretary Dmytro Peskov previously stated that Moscow has “its own vision” of ending hostilities, but does not rule out consideration of the proposed 30-day option.
