Vladimir Putin’s offer of direct talks with Ukraine is the latest attempt to avoid committing to a 30-day ceasefire | World News

The Kremlin billed this as a meaningful statement from Vladimir Putin but how much does it actually mean?

His comments are exactly the same as what Moscow has been saying for weeks, only repackaged with a date. The latest attempt to avoid committing to a 30-day ceasefire.

Next Thursday – 15 May – is when he’s proposing to hold direct talks with Ukraine. Only then, he says, can they discuss the details of a longer truce.

Istanbul is apparently the venue. The trouble is, Turkey doesn’t appear to know about it. The Russian leader said he’d call President Erdogan tomorrow.

Given America’s apparent support for Europe’s ultimatum to Russia (ceasefire or sanctions), he had to respond with something new. But this felt like a proposal that had been hastily cobbled together in the corridor outside.

The build-up to this announcement was extremely strange. We were told it would be a press conference and everyone had the high expectation of being able to ask questions (which doesn’t happen very often here).

It was initially pitched as a sum-up of the bilateral meetings Putin has held this week with the leaders who were here for the Victory Day celebrations. But the ultimatum from Europe seems to have caught the Kremlin off guard.

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Because by the time Putin finally emerged, approaching 2am, there were no questions. Just a statement. So what was the point in asking all the journalists to come?

Afterwards, I did manage to pose a question to Putin’s spokesperson, asking him if this was just another delaying tactic from Russia.

“No, this is a very serious approach,” he said.

“You have to be in negotiations, direct negotiations, in order to find a way for a ceasefire. A simplistic approach towards the ceasefire is inappropriate.”

The question is, will Donald Trump think this is inappropriate? It’s two months since he first proposed a 30-day ceasefire and it seems very little has changed.