By Marina Bobrova, Dmitry Antonov and Lidia Kelly, Reuters
Vladimir Putin says he wants to "eliminate the root causes of the conflict". Photo: VYACHESLAV PROKOFYEV / AFP
- Putin proposes direct talks with Ukraine
- Putin proposes talks on 15 May in Istanbul
- Putin says talks to seek durable peace
- Putin says talks should deal with causes of the conflict
- European leaders tell Putin: agree to Ukraine ceasefire
Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed direct talks with Ukraine on 15 May in Istanbul, saying they should be aimed at achieving a durable peace and eliminating the root causes of the war.
Putin sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
He said Russia was proposing talks with Ukraine in an attempt to "eliminate the root causes of the conflict" and "to achieve the restoration of a long-term, lasting peace".
"It was not Russia that broke off negotiations in 2022, it was Kyiv," Putin said, referring to failed talks shortly after the Russian invasion of 2022. "Nevertheless, we are proposing that Kyiv resume direct negotiations without any preconditions.
"We offer the Kyiv authorities to resume negotiations already on Thursday in Istanbul. 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."
Major European powers threw their weight behind an unconditional 30-day Ukraine ceasefire on Saturday, with the backing of US President Donald Trump, and threatened Putin with "massive" new sanctions, if he did not accept within days.
Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly said he wanted to end the "bloodbath" of the Ukraine war, which his administration cast as a proxy war between the United States and Russia.
Former US 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 cast 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.
- Reuters
