Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that the conflict in Ukraine is “coming to an end” and thanked the United States for facilitating the talks, but stressed that the issue ultimately concerns Russia and Ukraine only.“We are grateful to the United States for facilitating the talks, but it only concerns Russia and Ukraine,” Putin said. He added: “I believe that the conflict in Ukraine is coming to an end.”Putin also said that Russia is still waiting for a response from Ukraine regarding a major prisoner-of-war exchange proposed by US President Donald Trump.“We are counting on the Ukrainian side to respond to the proposal made by the President of the United States.
“Unfortunately, we have not yet received any proposals yet,” Putin told reporters.These statements came amid renewed diplomatic efforts surrounding the temporary ceasefire that Trump announced earlier. The US President had proposed a three-day truce between Russia and Ukraine from May 9 to 11, coinciding with the commemoration of Russian Victory Day on the occasion of the Soviet Union’s role in World War II.In a post on the Truth Social website, Trump said the ceasefire would include stopping “all kinetic activities” between the two countries.
Meanwhile, Putin’s aide, Yuri Ushakov, said Trump’s hopes of extending the ceasefire beyond the announced period were “unfounded.”“Yes, [Trump’s hope for an extension of the ceasefire] The Russian TASS news agency quoted Ushakov as telling reporters, “This is baseless. But he hopes so, why not?” He is working to achieve this.”He added that the continuation of any ceasefire depends on both Russia and Ukraine. “But this (prolonged ceasefire) depends not only on him, but on the other two parties as well,” Ushakov said.Regarding the proposed prisoner exchange, Ushakov said that Russian and Ukrainian agencies are currently working on lists of prisoners of war and that the process could move quickly if the two sides reach an agreement.“As far as I know, the relevant agencies are supposed to be actively working on the lists today, and if they reach an agreement through their channels, the exchange will begin,” Ushakov said.He also claimed that Russia had already provided lists of prisoners to Ukraine before the ceasefire was announced but had not received a response.“Preliminary work on our part [on the prisoner exchange] It was underway even before this ceasefire was announced. We have already submitted lists to the Ukrainian side. We did not receive any response from them. But now, maybe because of the pressure from… [US President Donald Trump]“As I mentioned earlier, they will speed up the preparation of the list,” Ushakov said.He added: “First, we need to compile this list, identify the actual individuals, and then reach an agreement to start exchanges. All of this takes time, but I think it can be done fairly quickly. This is what we agreed on, but we will see how things turn out in practice.”