Kremlin spokesperson plays down idea of quick resolution of conflict after president said he thought it was ‘coming to an end’

Vladimir Putin has said he thinks the Ukraine war is winding down, hours after he had vowed to defeat Ukraine at Moscow’s mostscaled-back Victory Day paradein years and even as two of his senior aides played down the notion of a quick end to the conflict.

“I think that the matter is coming to an end,” Putin said of Europe’s deadliest conflict since the second world war. He 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 – a choice unlikely to be accepted inUkraineand the EU.

However, two top Kremlin representatives played down any idea of a quick end to the war. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, said this weekend that reaching a peace agreement on Ukraine would take a long time.

“It is clear that the American side is in a hurry, but the issue of a Ukrainian settlement is too complex, and reaching a peace agreement is a very long road with many complicated details,” Peskov said.

The Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said negotiations would “probably resume”, but it was unclear when.

Ushakov told Russian media on Thursday that Moscow saw no basis for a new round of trilateral talks with Ukraine and the US until Ukrainian forces withdrew from the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine – a condition Kyiv has rejected.

This week the European Council president, António Costa, said he believed there was potential for the EU to negotiate with Russia and to discuss the future of the security architecture ofEurope.

Ukrainian officials said on Sunday there had been Russian drone strikes and nearly 150 battlefield clashes over the past 24 hours, despite a US-brokered three-day ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow announced on the eve of the Moscow parade. Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that Russia had shot down 57 Ukrainian drones.

On Saturday Moscow was blanketed in heavy security, with internet services switched off across the city, as Ukraine continued to rattle Russia with long-range drone and missile strikes – forcing parade organisers to strip the event of its usual pageantry.

Source: Drudge Report