Russian President Vladimir Putin smiles whereas visiting the We Are Collectively Fourm and Awards Ceremony, on December 3, 2025 in Moscow, Russia.
Contributor | Getty Pictures
Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned on Saturday that he thought the Ukraine warfare was coming to an finish, remarks that got here simply hours after he had vowed victory in Ukraine at Moscow’s most scaled-back Victory Day parade in years.
“I feel that the matter is coming to an finish,” Putin instructed reporters of the Russia-Ukraine warfare, Europe’s deadliest battle since World Struggle II. He additionally mentioned he could be keen to barter new safety preparations for Europe and that his most popular negotiating accomplice could be Germany’s former Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder.
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine triggered essentially the most severe disaster in relations between Russia and the West because the 1962 Cuban Missile Disaster, when many individuals feared the world was getting ready to nuclear warfare.
The Kremlin has mentioned peace talks brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration have been on pause. Putin has repeatedly vowed to combat on till all of Russia’s varied warfare goals are achieved in what Moscow calls the “particular army operation.”
Putin was talking on the Kremlin after setting out his view of the warfare’s causes. He blamed “globalist” Western leaders, saying they promised NATO wouldn’t develop eastward after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, however then tried to attract Ukraine into the European Union’s orbit.
His assertion got here simply hours after the parade on the Could 9 nationwide vacation celebrating the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World Struggle II. The annual occasion pays homage to the 27 million Soviet residents who perished in that warfare.
As a substitute of the standard intercontinental ballistic missiles, tanks and missile programs rolling throughout the cobbles of Pink Sq., Russia performed a video of its army {hardware} in motion on big screens reverse the Kremlin partitions.
Russian troops have been preventing in Ukraine for properly over 4 years. That’s longer than Soviet forces fought in World Struggle Two, recognized in Russia because the Nice Patriotic Struggle of 1941-45.
Struggle in Europe
Putin, who has dominated Russia as president or prime minister because the final day of 1999, faces a wave of tension in Moscow concerning the warfare in Ukraine, which has killed tons of of hundreds of individuals, left swathes of Ukraine in ruins, and drained Russia’s $3 trillion economic system. Russia’s relations with Europe are worse than at any time because the depths of the Chilly Struggle.
Russian forces have to this point been unable to take the entire of the Donbas area of jap Ukraine the place Kyiv’s forces have been pushed again to a line of fortress cities. Russian advances have slowed this yr, although Moscow controls slightly below one fifth of Ukrainian territory.
After Russia and Ukraine accused one another of violating unilateral ceasefires that they had every declared over latest days, U.S. President Donald Trump introduced a three-day ceasefire from Saturday to Monday that was supported by the Kremlin and Kyiv. The 2 sides additionally agreed to trade 1,000 prisoners.
“I would wish to see it cease. Russia-Ukraine – it is the worst factor since World Struggle Two by way of life. Twenty-five thousand younger troopers each month. It is loopy,” Trump instructed reporters in Washington.
He added that he would “wish to see a giant extension” of the ceasefire. There have been no reviews of violations of the ceasefire from both Moscow or Kyiv.
Talks with Schröder?
European Council President António Costa mentioned final week that he believed there was “potential” for the EU to barter with Russia and talk about the way forward for Europe’s safety structure.
Requested if he was keen to have interaction in talks with the Europeans, Putin mentioned his most popular determine was Schröder.
“For me personally, the previous Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr. Schröder, is preferable,” Putin mentioned.
European leaders have mentioned Russia have to be defeated in Ukraine and forged Putin as a warfare legal and autocrat who they are saying might at some point assault a NATO member if he’s allowed to win the warfare. Russia dismisses such claims as nonsense.
Putin, who ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022, casts European powers as warmongers for supporting Ukraine with tens of billions of {dollars} in help, weapons and intelligence.
Requested about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Putin mentioned a gathering was potential solely as soon as an enduring peace deal was agreed.
