Sawt Falasteen - Putin proposes direct Ukraine talks but quiet on 30-day ceasefire

Speaking at the Kremlin in the early hours of Sunday, Putin proposed direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on May 15 -- hours after Kyiv and the leaders of France, Germany, Britain and Poland had called for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire to start Monday.

"We propose to the Kyiv authorities to resume the talks that they broke off in 2022, and, I emphasise, without any preconditions," Putin said.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held direct talks in Istanbul in the first weeks of the conflict, but failed to agree to halt the fighting, which has been raging ever since.

"We propose to start (negotiations) without delay on Thursday May 15 in Istanbul," Putin said, adding that he would talk to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan soon to ask his help to facilitate the talks.

Putin said he was "committed to serious negotiations with Ukraine" and that he wanted talks to "eliminate the root causes of the conflict and to establish a long-lasting peace".

Russia's references to the "root causes" of the conflict typically refer to alleged grievances with Kyiv and the West that Moscow has put forward as justification for launching the offensive in February 2022.

They include pledges to "de-Nazify" Ukraine, protect Russian speakers in the country's east, push back against NATO expansion and stop Ukraine's westward geopolitical drift.

- 'Anti-Russian rhetoric' -

Kyiv and the West have rejected all of them, saying Russia's offensive is nothing more than an imperial-style land grab.

"We do not exclude that during these talks we will be able to agree on some new ceasefire," Putin said.

But he also accused Ukraine's Western backers of wanting to "continue war with Russia" and -- without mentioning the specific Ukraine-European proposal for a 30-day ceasefire -- slammed European "ultimatums" and "anti-Russian rhetoric".

The address in the Kremlin, attended by AFP, came hours after French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk gathered in Kyiv in a symbolic show of support for Ukraine.

Together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, they pressed Russia on Saturday to accept a 30-day unconditional ceasefire starting Monday, threatening Moscow with new sanctions if it did not comply.

The United States and other countries back the proposal, they said.

"We have just now... decided to support a ceasefire which will begin next Monday, without any preconditions," Macron told a press conference.

The leaders also held a video conference with their counterparts from about 20 other member countries of the "coalition of the willing" supporting Ukraine.

"In the event of a violation of this ceasefire, we have agreed that massive sanctions will be prepared and coordinated between Europeans and Americans," Macron said.

The United States and Ukraine have for weeks pushed a similar proposal, which Russia has not accepted.

US President Donald Trump had threatened to walk out of talks over the lack of progress on ending the war, after vowing during the US election campaign to halt the conflict within a day of taking office.

Kyiv and its allies had feared that Trump was pivoting towards Moscow because he had clashed with Zelensky. But Trump has recently expressed growing impatience with Putin.

- 'Absolute unity' -

"The position we've now got to today is absolute unity across a whole range of countries around the world, including the United States, that there must be that 30-day unconditional ceasefire," UK's Starmer said.

The five leaders in Kyiv held a "fruitful" call with Trump to update him on the meeting, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said.

"For the first time in a long time we had a feeling that the whole free world is truly united," Poland's Tusk said.

"We know that the real test is before us and before Putin. We will be waiting for Russia's reaction."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also supported the truce that she said "must be implemented without pre-conditions to pave the way for meaningful peace negotiations".

Macron said the ceasefire would be "mainly" monitored by the United States but that "Europeans will contribute". He said a truce would pave the way for "immediate work and negotiations with parties involved to build a robust and lasting peace".

The symbolic show of European unity came a day after Putin struck a defiant tone at a Moscow parade marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

Putin had ordered a unilateral three-day truce from Thursday through Saturday for the event. But a Ukrainian army brigade operating in the east told AFP the intensity of fighting had remained "pretty much the same".

L.Hussein--SF-PST