Vladimir Putin has given his strongest signal yet that he’s able to end the war in Ukraine.
The Russian president said he believed ‘the matter was coming to an end’ in a reference to what he has called a ‘special military operation’.
Putin used a speech at his nation’s pared back Victory Day parade, which took place without the standard display of military hardware, to say Russia was fighting a ‘just’ war.
But at a later press conference, the dictator told reporters the top of the four-year conflict could possibly be in sight.
He claimed the war was a ‘confrontation’ that had been ‘fuelled by the West’, the BBC reported.
Discussing possible steps towards a everlasting ceasefire, Putin said it was possible he could meet his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in a ‘third country’.
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But he added this is able to be a final step which could only occur ‘once final agreements have been reached on a peace treaty for an extended‑term historical perspective’.
The Russian leader indicated his preferred interlocutor could be Gerhard Schröder, who served as German chancellor between 1998 and 2005.
Schröder, now 82, is a longtime friend of Putin’s and has links to Russian state-owned energy firms.
Russia and Ukraine swapped 1,000 prisoners as a part of a short lived ceasefire brokered for Saturday’s parade in Moscow, to commemorate the victory over Nazi Germany.
Nevertheless Kyiv was accused by Russia of breaching the agreement, while Ukrainian authorities said at the very least one had been killed by a Russian drone and artillery attacks up to now day.
Five people were left injured following a Russian strike on a nine-storey apartment block in the economic district of Oleh Syniehubov, Ukraine‘s second-largest city.
Ukraine’s air force said it had intercepted all 27 strike and decoy drones fired by Russia overnight.
It comes as clip of Putin sparked discussion that the dictator had been using botox, after he was shown up close with a swollen cheek.
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