Putin says he is open to direct peace talks with Ukraine

• Vladimir Putin proposes bilateral conversations with KIEB.
• He says the battle continued after 30 hours of cease.
• Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of violating the truce.

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin, under pressure from Washington to show the willingness to peace in Ukraine, proposed on Monday bilateral talks with Kiev for the first time for years and said he was open to more posts after one day after one day.

Putin said Fighting had come back after the surprise of a 30 -hour ceasefire, which he unilaterally announced on Saturday. Both sides accused each other of violating Putin’s truce, which Kiev greatly rejected from the beginning as a vagina.

Washington said it would welcome an expansion of the truce. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for a 30 -day cease that protects political goals.

US President Donald Trump, who has promised to end the three -year war quickly, has reorganized US policy away from his strict support in Ukraine to accept Russia’s account for the war, but has so far won a few concessions.

Russia rejected a Trump proposal last month for a full 30 -day cease, accepted by Ukraine. US officials held parallel talks on both sides in Saudi Arabia, but agreed only to limited pauses on energy -efficient attacks, which accuse one another of violating.

Speaking to a Russian state television reporter, Putin said Moscow was open to any peace initiatives and is expected by Kiev.

“We always have a positive attitude towards a truce, so we came up with such an initiative, especially because we are talking about Easter bright days,” Putin said.

Asked about Zelenskiy’s 30 -day proposed truce about political goals, he said: “This is a matter for careful study, perhaps even bilaterally.

His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, later confirmed that Putin refers to the possibility of direct talks with Ukraine. The two sides are not known to have had such talks, as a failed peace effort during the first months of the war three years ago.

“When the president said that it was possible to discuss the issue of not impressing political goals, including bilaterals, the president had in mind the negotiations and discussions with the Ukrainian side,” Peskov said, according to the News Agency.

There was no immediate response from Kiev to Putin’s observations. A spokesman for President Volodymyr Zelenskiy did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

Air attacks

Zelenskiy said early Monday that his forces were called upon to continue reflecting the actions of the Russian army.

“The nature of Ukraine’s actions will remain symmetrical: the ceasefire will meet with the ceasefire and Russian strikes will meet with our own defense. Actions always speak louder than words,” he told social network X.

Trump and Foreign Minister Marco Rubio announced on Friday that Washington could be removed from peace talks in Ukraine completely unless the sides make no more progress within days. Trampa hit a more optimistic note on Sunday, saying that “we hope that” the two sides will make a “week this week” agreement.

Russia has not yet returned from any of its most important demands, including Ukraine that grants all areas that Putin claims to have attached and accepts permanent neutrality. Ukraine says this would be equivalent to tradition and leave it unexplored if Moscow attacks again.

Asked about Trump’s observations about a possible peace deal soon, Peskov said at daily teleconference with journalists: “I don’t want to make comments right now, especially for the timetable.

“President Putin and the Russian side remain open to the search for a peaceful settlement. We continue to work with the American side and, of course, hope that this project will produce results.”

While there were no air raid alerts in Ukraine on Sunday, the Ukrainian forces reported nearly 3,000 Russian cease violations with the heavier attacks and bombing observed along the first -line Pokrovsk section, Zelenski said.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said Sunday that Ukrainian forces had shot in Russian positions 444 times and said it had measured more than 900 Ukrainian attacks, also saying there were deaths and injuries between the political population.