President of Russia Vladimir Putin and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee To Lam hold a signing ceremony following their meeting in Moscow, Russia on May 10, 2025.
Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday proposed direct talks with Ukraine on May 15 in the Turkish city of Istanbul that he said should be aimed at bringing a durable peace and eliminating the root causes of the war.
Putin sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, unleashing a war that has left hundreds of thousands of soldiers dead and triggering the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
He said Russia was proposing direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul in an attempt to “eliminate the root causes of the conflict” and “to achieve the restoration of a long-term, lasting peace” rather than simply a pause for rearmament.
“We are proposing that Kyiv resume direct negotiations without any preconditions,” Putin said from the Kremlin in the early hours of Sunday. “We offer the Kyiv authorities to resume negotiations already on Thursday, in Istanbul.”
Despite public and private pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump and repeated warnings from European powers, Putin has offered few concessions towards ending the conflict.
Putin said that he would speak to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan later on Sunday about facilitating the talks, which he said could lead to a ceasefire.
“Our proposal, as they say, is on the table. The decision is now up to the Ukrainian authorities and their curators, who are guided, it seems, by their personal political ambitions, and not by the interests of their peoples.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office and Ukraine’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on the proposal.
No ceasefire?
Putin’s proposal for direct talks with Ukraine came hours after major European powers demanded on Saturday in Kyiv that Putin agree to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire or face “massive” new sanctions.
Putin dismissed what he said was the attempt by some European powers to lay down “ultimatums”.
Russia, Putin said, had proposed several ceasefires, including a moratorium on striking energy facilities, an Easter ceasefire and most recently the 72-hour truce during the celebrations marking 80 years since victory in World War Two.
(From L) German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk give a joint press conference after their meeting in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on May 10, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Genya Savilov | Afp | Getty Images
Both Russia and Ukraine accused each other of violating the temporary truce proposals, including the May 8-10 ceasefire.
On Sunday, Russia launched a drone attack on Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
Putin said that he does not rule out that during his proposed talks in Turkey both sides will agree on “some new truces, a new ceasefire,” but one that would be the first step towards a “sustainable” peace.
Peace?
Putin, whose forces have advanced over the past year, has stood firm in his conditions for ending the war.
In June 2024, he said that Ukraine must officially drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed by Russia.
Russian officials have also proposed that the U.S. recognise Russia’s control over about one fifth of Ukraine and demanded that Ukraine remains neutral though Moscow has said it is not opposed to Kyiv’s ambitions to join the European Union.
Putin specifically mentioned the 2022 draft deal which Russia and Ukraine negotiated shortly after the Russian invasion of February 2022.
Under that draft, a copy of which Reuters has seen, Ukraine should agree to permanent neutrality in return for international security guarantees from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a press conference after the Conference of Coalition of the willing with European leaders in the grounds of the Mariynsky Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine on May 10, 2025.
Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images
“It was not Russia that broke off negotiations in 2022. It was Kyiv,” Putin said. “Russia is ready to negotiate without any preconditions.”
He thanked China, Brazil, African and Middle Eastern countries and the United States for their efforts to mediate.
Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly said he wants to end the “bloodbath” of the Ukraine war which his administration casts as a proxy war between the United States and Russia.
Former U.S. President Joe Biden, Western European leaders and Ukraine cast the invasion as an imperial-style land grab and repeatedly vowed to defeat Russian forces.
Putin casts the war as a watershed moment in Moscow’s relations with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Soviet Union fell in 1991 by enlarging NATO and encroaching on what he considers Moscow’s sphere of influence, including Ukraine.
