Putin Says Russia-Ukraine War Is 'Coming to an End,' Floats Third-Country Meeting With Zelenskyy

President Vladimir Putin declared this week that the war in Ukraine is "coming to an end," the most explicit signal from the Kremlin in more than four years of fighting that Moscow may be willing to negotiate a settlement — even as Russian and Ukrainian forces continued to trade strikes across the front and into each other's capitals.

Speaking after Russia's scaled-back May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow, which featured North Korean troops marching through Red Square for the first time, Putin told reporters that he was open to meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy face to face. "A meeting in a third country is also possible," Putin said, "but only after a peace treaty is finalized." The Russian leader, who has previously insisted that Ukraine cede the entirety of four annexed regions before any talks, did not specify which territorial terms he was now prepared to accept.

The statement followed a three-day ceasefire from May 9 to May 11 announced by President Donald Trump, who said the Kremlin and Kyiv had agreed to halt all kinetic activity and exchange 1,000 prisoners on each side. The pause largely held in the air domain but quickly frayed on the ground, with both governments accusing the other of violations. Ukrainian officials confirmed Sunday that one of the largest drone barrages of the war had struck targets in and around Moscow overnight, killing at least four people and wounding a dozen others according to local authorities.

U.S. and European officials remain divided over how seriously to take Putin's overture. "He's said versions of this before," a senior NATO diplomat told reporters in Brussels on the condition of anonymity. "What's different is that the Russian economy is now under real strain, oil revenues are wobbling because of the Strait of Hormuz crisis, and the manpower picture is grim." Russia has suffered an estimated 1 million casualties since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to U.S. and U.K. intelligence assessments, and now controls roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.

Zelenskyy, speaking in Kyiv on Saturday, said Ukraine was prepared to enter a "long-term ceasefire" but only along the existing line of contact. He rejected any framework requiring Ukrainian withdrawal from parts of Donbas still under Kyiv's control, calling such demands "a non-starter that Moscow knows we will never accept." The Ukrainian leader also reiterated that any peace deal must include binding Western security guarantees, a proposal France and the United Kingdom have endorsed by pledging to install military hubs inside Ukraine after a settlement.

The diplomatic flurry comes against the backdrop of a wider regional crisis. With the U.S.-Israel war against Iran still simmering and the Strait of Hormuz partially closed, Western capitals are increasingly anxious to lock in even a partial Ukraine settlement before another shock hits global energy markets. "Putin is hearing the same numbers we are," said Fiona Hill, the former senior director for European and Russian affairs at the National Security Council. "Inflation in Russia is running hot, the ruble is weak, and the war economy is consuming what's left of his civilian budget. If he wants an off-ramp, this is the political window." Whether that window holds, analysts cautioned, depends on whether Trump is willing to accept a frozen-conflict outcome that leaves roughly 20 percent of Ukraine under Russian control — a deal Kyiv has so far refused to sign.