Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he hopes for a ceasefire with Russia starting on Monday and says “I will be waiting for Putin” in Turkiye personally, referring to the Russian president’s offer for direct peace talks in Istanbul.
Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Ukraine’s proposal of a ceasefire starting on Monday remained on the table and that Kyiv was still waiting for a response from Russia.
Earlier on Sunday, he insisted there must be a full, temporary ceasefire in place before the negotiations proposed by Putin could start.
Zelenskyy, writing on X on Sunday, said it was a “positive sign that the Russians have finally begun to consider ending the war” and “the entire world has been waiting for this for a very long time”.
He added, however, that “the very first step in truly ending any war is a ceasefire”, in a reference to his proposal to start a 30-day unconditional truce on Monday.
“There is no point in continuing the killing even for a single day. We expect Russia to confirm a ceasefire – full, lasting, and reliable – starting tomorrow, May 12th, and Ukraine is ready to meet,” Zelenskyy wrote.
In remarks to the media overnight, Putin in effect rejected that ceasefire offer and instead proposed restarting direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday “without preconditions”. He said a ceasefire might be agreed on during the negotiations.
United States President Donald Trump posted on Sunday on Truth Social: “President Putin of Russia doesn’t want to have a Cease Fire Agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOODBATH. Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY.”
“At least they will be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible, and if it is not, European leaders, and the U.S., will know where everything stands, and can proceed accordingly!” Trump added.
‘Political chess game’
Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Kyiv, said this is really an “interesting political chess game” that Zelenskyy is playing.
“What we’re hearing from experts and analysts … is that this is an expert move by Zelenskyy because he wins either way,” Basravi said.
“He goes and shows that he is leading from the front and he is willing to participate in talks to end this war,” he said, referring to the talks slated to take place in Turkiye.
“And if Putin does not show up, it works in his favour – it illustrates what Ukraine has said all along, that Russia is not serious about stopping the war.”
Putin’s offer came after the leaders of Ukraine, France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom also called for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire and threatened to ratchet up pressure on Moscow if it does not accept it.
The leaders, who met in Kyiv on Saturday, said their call is backed by Trump as they threatened “massive” new sanctions on Moscow.
Basravi said Zelenskyy has been calling for pressure on Russia from international leaders, “which he got this week”.
“Yesterday, Zelenskyy hosted European leaders. It was a symbolic visit to Kyiv that led to practical measures taken by the European Union,” Basravi said earlier on Sunday. “And we see that playing out now.”
‘More careful’
Putin slammed European “ultimatums” and “anti-Russian rhetoric” before outlining the counterproposal for renewed Russia-Ukraine negotiations.
“We are proposing that Kyiv resume direct negotiations without any preconditions,” the Russian president told reporters. “We offer the Kyiv authorities to resume negotiations already on Thursday in Istanbul.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in comments aired by Russian state TV on Sunday, called Putin’s proposal “very serious”, aimed at eliminating “the root causes of the conflict” and said it “confirms a real intention to find a peaceful solution”.
Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova, reporting from Moscow, said Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs insisted Kyiv “misread Putin’s statement about the direct talks”.
“According to the Russian side, negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul should take into account the results of discussions interrupted back in 2022 and, of course, the situation on the battlefield,” Shapovalova said, referring to previous talks that came close to securing a deal.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday told Russian and French leaders that a “historic turning point” has been reached in efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war and Ankara was ready to host talks between the two warring parties, his office said.
NATO member Turkiye has sought to maintain good relations with both its Black Sea neighbours since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and has twice hosted talks aimed at ending the war.
Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said this time around “we are expecting Kyiv and Moscow along with Ankara to be more careful and commit themselves to a more sustainable peace process and talks”.
“Because of its geopolitical position and because it controls the way into the Black Sea, Turkiye has a very important position but also a very fragile one,” Koseoglu said.
Trump described the talks offer as a “potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine”.
“I will continue to work with both sides to make sure that it happens. The USA wants to focus, instead, on Rebuilding and Trade. A BIG week upcoming!” he said.
‘No preconditions’
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, has killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and triggered the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
In the first weeks of the conflict, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held direct talks in Istanbul but failed to agree to halt the fighting.
Putin said Russia was proposing restarting the talks 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 do not exclude that during these talks we will be able to agree on some new ceasefire,” he added.
Putin, whose forces have advanced over the past year, has faced increased public and private pressure from Trump as well as warnings from European powers to end the war.
But he has offered few concessions and has stood firm in his conditions for ending the war.
In June, Putin said Ukraine must officially drop its NATO membership 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 US recognise Russia’s control over about one-fifth of Ukraine and demanded that Ukraine remain neutral although Moscow has said it is not opposed to Kyiv’s ambitions to join the European Union.
Putin specifically mentioned the 2022 draft deal from the talks in Istanbul.
According to the Reuters news agency, that draft deal stipulated that Ukraine should agree to permanent neutrality in return for international security guarantees from the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council: China, France, Russia, the UK and the US.
“It was not Russia that broke off negotiations in 2022. It was Kyiv,” Putin said. “Russia is ready to negotiate without any preconditions.”
Russia, Putin added, had proposed several ceasefires, including a moratorium on striking energy facilities, an Easter ceasefire and most recently a 72-hour truce last week during celebrations marking 80 years since the Soviet victory in World War II. He accused Ukraine of repeatedly violating the ceasefires.
He said that during the May ceasefire, Ukraine had attacked Russia with 524 aerial drones, 45 sea drones, a number of Western missiles and Russia had repelled five attacks on Russian regions.
Ukraine, too, has accused Russia of repeatedly violating its own ceasefires.
Trump factor
Anatol Lieven, the director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a US think tank, told Al Jazeera that both sides were trying to blame each other for failing to agree to a ceasefire amid pressure from Trump to end the war.
“Trump has threatened to walk away from the peace process if there isn’t some kind of settlement or agreement on a ceasefire soon. And the question is who he blames for the failure. If he blames the Russians more, then full US aid will continue to Ukraine and the sanctions he has threatened will be intensified,” Lieven said.
“If, however, he blames Ukraine more, then, as he’s done once before, he will suspend US aid and intelligence assistance to Ukraine, and that, of course, will drastically weaken Ukraine’s military position and strengthen that of Russia. So both sides are manoeuvring to try to throw blame for any failure onto the other.”
Former US President Joe Biden, Western European leaders and Ukraine portray the invasion as an imperial-style land grab and have repeatedly pledged to defeat Russian forces.
Putin, meanwhile, 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.
