Vladimir Putin said Saturday he believed the Russia-Ukraine war was nearing an end, remarks that came hours after he pledged victory during Moscow’s most subdued Victory Day parade in years.
"I think that the matter is coming to an end," the Russian president told reporters of the war, Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.
He also said he would be willing to negotiate new security arrangements for Europe and that his preferred negotiating partner would be Germany's former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine triggered the most serious crisis in relations between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war.
The Kremlin has said peace talks brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration were on pause. Putin has repeatedly vowed to fight on until all of Russia's various war aims are achieved in what Moscow calls the "special military operation."
