Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia must agree to ceasefire before holding peace talks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has welcomed Vladimir Putin’s call for direct peace talks but said Kyiv will only meet once Moscow agrees to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire starting from Monday.

The Kremlin, however, insisted it would not halt the Russian president’s three-year invasion of Ukraine without first holding talks on the “initial reasons” for the conflict.

The competing proposals indicate Ukraine and Russia remain far apart on how to begin a peace process as they vie for the goodwill of US President Donald Trump.

“We expect Russia to confirm a ceasefire — full, lasting, and reliable — starting tomorrow, May 12th, and Ukraine is ready to meet,” Zelenskyy said in a statement on social media on Sunday.

He called Putin’s proposal “a positive sign that the Russians have finally begun to consider ending the war”.

“The entire world has been waiting for this for a very long time. And the very first step in truly ending any war is a ceasefire,” he said. 

Earlier on Sunday morning, Putin offered to hold negotiations without conditions in Istanbul on Thursday but rejected Ukraine’s 30-day ceasefire proposal.

Though Russia and Ukraine made it clear neither side was ready to meet unless the other agreed to hold talks on their terms, Trump appeared to welcome the start of a peace process after Putin’s statement.

“A potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine!” the US president wrote on social media. “Think of the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be saved as this never ending ‘bloodbath’ hopefully comes to an end. It will be a whole new, and much better, WORLD. I will continue to work with both sides to make sure that it happens.”

Putin resumed combat operations in Ukraine immediately after insisting he would only hold talks on a ceasefire after Russia’s main demands to end the war were met. After he spoke to reporters in the Kremlin in the early hours of Sunday, sirens blared across Ukraine, as Russian drones attacked targets in several regions.

Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, told state TV that Moscow wanted to hold talks in Istanbul based on the failed peace process held there in the war’s early months in 2022, as well as the “real situation [ . . .] on the ground”, where Russia holds the upper hand on the battlefield.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told Putin that Turkey was ready to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, Erdoğan’s office said.

Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said Ukraine had “misread” Putin’s statement. “Putin said it very clearly: negotiations about the initial reasons [for the war] first, then a conversation about a ceasefire,” she told state newswire Tass.

Russia’s demands include a bar on Nato membership for Ukraine and recognition of Putin’s annexation of four south-eastern regions, as well as an end to western military support for Kyiv. A return to the Istanbul talks would also involve Ukraine to pledge neutrality, accept caps on its military and accept Moscow’s demands to protect the Russian language in the country.

Ukraine has said those terms would all but end its existence as a modern state.

The Russian counter-offer is a rejection of the 30-day ceasefire proposal made earlier on Saturday after the leaders of France, Germany, Poland and the UK visited Kyiv to meet Zelenskyy.

Air defences punctuated the early morning silence in Kyiv just hours after the leaders of France, Germany, Poland and the UK departed by train from the Ukrainian capital.

The European partners agreed that if Russia were to refuse a total and unconditional 30-day ceasefire, stricter sanctions would be adopted against the banking and energy sectors, the Elysée said late on Saturday evening.

French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on Sunday that Putin’s response was “a first move, but it is not enough”, adding it was a means of “not responding” to the ceasefire proposals. 

“We have to hold firm with the Americans to say that the ceasefire is unconditional and afterwards we can discuss the rest,” he said from an overnight train in Przemyśl, Poland, after departing Kyiv. 

“It’s unacceptable for the Ukrainians because they can’t accept parallel discussions while they continue to be bombarded.” 

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also urged Russia to agree to an immediate ceasefire.

In a post on social media platform X on Sunday he wrote: “In response to our appeal, the Russians have proposed peace talks starting May 15. The world, however, is waiting for univocal decision on an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. Ukraine is ready. No more victims!”

Additional reporting by Raphael Minder and Anne-Sylvaine Chassany