⚡️ Russia's President Vladimir Putin's Statement (May 11, 2025)

💬 #President Putin: We suggest the authorities in Kiev to resume direct talks, which they themselves interrupted in the end of 2022.

We propose to start the talks without delay, next week, on September 15, in Istanbul.

Full transcript to be added later

🇷🇺🇹🇷 On May 11, President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a telephone conversation.

The Leaders had a thorough discussion of the President of Russia's initiative on resuming direct talks between Russia and Ukraine, which were proposed to be held in Istanbul starting on May 15.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed his full support for Russia's proposal and emphasised his willingness to provide a venue for the talks in Istanbul. The Turkish side will offer all possible assistance in organising and holding talks aimed at achieving sustainable peace.

The President of Russia conveyed his impressions of the events held in Moscow to mark the 80th anniversary of Great Victory, as well as the international engagements that took place over these few days.

The Leaders have also expressed mutual interest in further expanding the bilateral ties in trade and investment and, in particular, implementing joint strategic projects in energy.

#RussiaTürkiye

⚡️ Press statement by the President of Russia

Key points:

❗️ Despite everything, we propose that the authorities in Kiev should resume the negotiations that they interrupted at the end of 2022 and resume direct talks. And, I stress, without any preconditions.

👉 We are set on serious negotiations with Ukraine. Their aim is to eliminate the root causes of the conflict and to achieve a long-term lasting peace for a historical perspective.

• We suggest starting without delay next Thursday, May 15, in Istanbul, where they were held earlier and where they were interrupted.

• Tomorrow we are going to have a conversation with the President of Turkiye, Mr Erdogan. I would like to ask him to provide such an opportunity to hold talks in Turkiye. I hope that he will confirm his desire to contribute to the search for peace in Ukraine.

• We do not rule out that in the course of these negotiations it will become possible to agree on some kind of new truce and a new ceasefire. And a real ceasefire that would be observed not only by Russia but also by the Ukrainian side.

• Our proposal is, as they say, on the table. The decision is now up to Ukrainian authorities and their supervisors, who are seemingly guided by their personal political ambitions, rather than the interests of their peoples, want to continue the war against Russia at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists.

***

• We honour all those who contributed to the common victory over Nazism, including our allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, Chinese soldiers, participants in the anti-Fascist resistance in Europe, fighters of the people's liberation movements in Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, and volunteers from Latin American countries.

• Together with our friends and like-minded people, we share a common memory and respect for history, heroic deed of true heroes who fought for freedom, and of course, our responsibility for the future, for building a more just and safer world. The issues that directly affect the stable, sustainable development of the entire world community – Eurasia and other world regions – were at the center of the bilateral and the multilateral meetings held in Moscow.

• Despite threats, blackmail and obstacles caused, including the closure of airspace, the leaders of several European countries – Serbia, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina – came to Moscow. I would like to reiterate: we understand the massive pressure they faced, and therefore we sincerely appreciate their political courage, firm moral position, decision to share the holiday with us, to pay tribute to the memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, World War II, who fought for their Fatherland and for deliverance from the brown plague of the whole world, of the entire mankind without any exaggeration.

• We are grateful to the leaders of the 13 states who sent units of the national armed forces to participate in the parade on Red Square. Their shoulder-to-shoulder march with our ceremonial units filled the common holiday with special energy and the spirit of military brotherhood, tempered during the Second World War.

• It is important for us that millions of Europeans, state leaders that pursue sovereign policies, remember this. This gives us optimism and hope that sooner or later, based on the lessons of history and the opinion of our peoples, we will begin to move towards restoring constructive relations with European states.

• Our comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction with the People's Republic of China can serve as a genuine example of modern equal relations in the 21st century.

Read in full

🎙 Excerpt from the press statement by the President of Russia Vladimir Putin (May 11, 2025)

💬 Vladimir Putin: Russia has proposed ceasefire initiatives on several occasions, but they, these initiatives, have been repeatedly sabotaged by Ukraine.

For example, the Kiev regime defiantly violated about 130 times the 30-day – I want to make it a point – 30-day moratorium, from March 18 to April 17, on strikes against energy facilities, which was declared in accordance with our agreement with US President Donald Trump.

The Easter truce initiated by Russia was not observed either: the ceasefire regime was violated by Ukrainian forces almost 5,000 times.

Nevertheless, for the celebration of Victory Day – and we consider this to be a sacred holiday for us as well, just imagine that we lost 27 million people – we declared a ceasefire for the third time on this holiday, which is sacred to us.

Incidentally we conveyed to those of our colleagues in the West who, in my opinion, are sincerely looking for ways to settlement, our position on this issue, on a ceasefire on Victory Day, and that in the future we do not exclude the possibility of extending the terms of this truce – but, of course, after analysing what will happen in these several days, based on the results of how the Kiev regime will react to our proposal.

And what do we see? What are these results?

The Kiev authorities, as you can see for yourself, did not respond at all to our ceasefire proposal.

<...>

As I have already said, the Kiev authorities not only declined our ceasefire proposal, but also, as we all saw, tried to intimidate the leaders of the states who gathered for the celebrations in Moscow.

<...>

I will repeat: we have proposed steps towards a ceasefire on many occasions. We have never refused to engage in dialogue with the Ukrainian side. Let me remind you again: it was not us who interrupted the negotiations in 2022; it was the Ukrainian side.

❗️ In this connection, despite everything, we propose that the authorities in Kiev should resume the negotiations that they interrupted at the end of 2022 and resume direct talks. And, I stress, without any preconditions.

We suggest starting without delay next Thursday, May 15, in Istanbul, where they were held earlier and where they were interrupted. <...>

Tomorrow we are going to have a conversation with the President of Turkiye, Mr Erdogan. I would like to ask him to provide such an opportunity to hold talks in Turkiye. I hope that he will confirm his desire to contribute to the search for peace in Ukraine.

We are set on serious negotiations with Ukraine. Their aim is to eliminate the root causes of the conflict and to achieve a long-term lasting peace for a historical perspective.

We do not rule out that in the course of these negotiations it will become possible to agree on some kind of new truce and a new ceasefire. And a real ceasefire that would be observed not only by Russia but also by the Ukrainian side and would be the first step, I repeat, towards a long-term, sustainable peace, rather than a prelude to continuing armed conflict after the Ukrainian armed forces have been rearmed, re-equipped and frantically digged trenches and new strongholds. Who needs such peace?

Our proposal is, as they say, on the table. The decision is now up to Ukrainian authorities and their supervisors, who are seemingly guided by their personal political ambitions, rather than the interests of their peoples, want to continue the war against Russia at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists.

Let me reiterate myself: Russia is ready for talks without any preliminary conditions. There are combat actions and war going on now, and we propose to resume negotiations that were not interrupted by us.

Well, what's wrong about it?

Those who really want peace cannot but support this.

👉 Full transcript