Putin says Ukraine war nearing end, but ties peace to Russia’s terms

Vladimir Putin signaled that the war in Ukraine was “coming to an end” while refusing to soften the terms he says must define any settlement. The timing was deliberate. He made the remarks after Moscow’s most scaled-back Victory Day parade in years, a ceremony that normally projects military confidence but this year looked noticeably smaller, with no tanks or other heavy equipment rolling across Red Square.

That combination of reassurance and rigidity was the point. Putin said he was willing to discuss a new European security arrangement, and Reuters reported that he would meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a third country only if a peace deal had already been finalized. He also cast the war’s current phase as a continuation of earlier draft peace terms negotiated in Istanbul after Russia’s full-scale invasion, while blaming Western leaders for “escalating the standoff” instead of backing those terms.

The message came as the battlefield and the politics around it remained unsettled. A U.S.-brokered three-day ceasefire ran from May 9 to May 11, but Russia and Ukraine accused each other of violating it, with each side saying drones, artillery and strikes had caused casualties. Reuters said the Trump administration was brokering peace talks and that the Kremlin described those discussions as on pause, underscoring how fragile the diplomatic track had become even as both sides kept trading blame.

Putin’s remarks also reflected the pressure of a war that has lasted more than four years and has become Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. By hinting at an endpoint, he acknowledged the weight of domestic fatigue and battlefield strain. By keeping his demands intact, he preserved the leverage that matters most to the Kremlin: the ability to sound open to peace without conceding the substance of Russia’s position.