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The war in Ukraine, which has surpassed four years, could come to an end soon, Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated over the weekend.
”I think the conflict in Ukraine is heading toward a conclusion,” Putin implied in Moscow while speaking on the sidelines of the Victory Day anniversary.
The President commented on reports that Zelensky is ready to hold a personal meeting. “We have never refused,” he said. “Whoever wants to meet, let them come to Moscow.”
Putin reiterated his view that the “globalist wing of Western elites” is fighting Russia through the Ukrainians, expecting to achieve the collapse of its statehood within a few months.
The premier said the planned “crushing defeat for Russia” hasn’t happened, adding that “they got stuck in this rut and now they can’t get out of it.”
On Iran, Putin revealed Russia offered to store Iran’s enriched uranium, but the United States later “toughened its position,” after everyone initially agreed to the idea.
The President also disclosed that Russia and China are preparing to take “a very serious step forward” in the gas and oil sectors, as Moscow and Beijing strengthen economic ties.
Putin, however, praised the foreign leaders who traveled to Moscow for the Victory Day commemoration, saying their presence “demonstrated personal courage.”
Iran’s central military command accused the United States of violating the ceasefire in the Middle East war with attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, saying they attacked US forces in retaliation.
The US “targeted an Iranian oil tanker moving from the coastal waters of Iran in the Jask region towards the Strait of Hormuz, as well as another ship entering the Strait of Hormuz opposite the port of Fujairah, UAE”, the Khatam Al Anbiya said in a statement quoted by state TV, accusing the US of also carrying out strikes elsewhere in the south “in cooperation with some countries in the region”.
Iranian forces “immediately and in retaliation attacked American military vessels”, it added.
Russian Pressident, Vladimir Putin declared a two-day ceasefire in Ukraine for May 8 and 9, timed to Russia’s World War Two victory commemorations, and within hours Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded with his own proposed pause — starting earlier, on the night of May 5 to 6, and framed in language that turned Putin’s announcement into a political rebuke rather than a diplomatic convergence.
The dueling ceasefire proposals capture the fundamental problem with where the Russia-Ukraine war stands more than three years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion: both sides can announce a pause in fighting without either side trusting the other to observe it, and the history of the past month makes that skepticism entirely reasonable. Russia declared a brief ceasefire for Orthodox Easter last month. Each side accused the other of violating it before the ink had dried.
Putin’s announcement came through Russia’s Defense Ministry, which posted the truce on Telegram and said Moscow expected Ukraine to follow suit. It framed the two-day pause around the 81st anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany — May 9 being Russia’s most significant national holiday, the day the Soviet Union signed Germany’s surrender in 1945. The ministry said Russian forces would take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of the commemorations.
