Ukraine war 'will be over soon', says Putin - as three-day ceasefire begins
Vladimir Putin has claimed the Ukraine conflict will soon come to an end as a US brokered ceasefire begins.
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He was speaking on day one of a new three-day ceasefire which was brokered by the United States.
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.
"I think that the matter is coming to an end," Putin told reporters of the Ukraine war.
The Financial Times reported on Thursday that European Union leaders were preparing for potential talks.
Asked if he was willing to engage in talks with the Europeans, he said the preferable figure for him was former Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
The Kremlin said last week that it was for European governments to make the first move, as they were the ones who severed contact with Moscow in 2022 after the start of the war in Ukraine.
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Read more: Putin hails soldiers 'confronting NATO' at scaled back Victory Day parade - with no tanks
Earlier on Saturday, Russia held its most scaled-back Victory Day parade in years due to the threat of attack from Ukraine.
The May 9 parade on Red Square marks Russia's most revered national holiday, where the autocratic nation celebrates the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany.
Once used to show off Russia's vast military, including its nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, the parade this year had no tanks or other military equipment rolling over the cobbles of Red Square.
Instead, weapons including a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile, the new Arkhangelsk nuclear submarine, the Peresvet laser weapon, the Sukhoi Su-57 fighter, the S-500 surface-to-air missile system and a host of drones and artillery were shown on giant screens on Red Square, and on state television.
Fighter planes flew above the towers of the Kremlin and Putin made an eight minute speech, promising victory in the war in Ukraine which the Kremlin calls the "special military operation".