Russia’s Putin proposes direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on May 15, ‘without preconditions’

Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited Kyiv to resume the shelved Istanbul peace talks on 15 May “without preconditions,” reviving the format that collapsed in the first weeks of the 2022 invasion. Announcing the offer in a pre-dawn Kremlin briefing, he framed it as a restart of dialogue rather than a fresh initiative, pointedly recalling the draft treaty that Russian and Ukrainian negotiators initialled—but never finalized—three years ago.

Putin’s overture lands just hours after the leaders of France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland—co-ordinating with U.S. President Donald Trump—demanded that Moscow accept an “unconditional” 30-day ceasefire beginning Monday. Kyiv has already agreed, and the Europeans warned of “massive, co-ordinated” sanctions on energy and banking if Russia refuses or violates the truce. Retired U.S. general Keith Kellogg, now Trump’s special envoy, said Washington would take the lead on monitoring any halt in fighting, calling the proposal a pathway to end “the largest and longest war in Europe since 1945.”

Yet fresh reports of Russian shelling in Sumy and a deadly drone strike in Kherson underscored the fragility of any prospective pause. Ukraine claims Moscow has repeatedly breached its own three-day Victory-Day truce, while the Kremlin has not formally responded to the Western plan. The coming days will test whether Putin’s Istanbul gambit is a genuine opening or a tactic to blunt looming sanctions, as shuttle diplomacy intensifies before Monday’s proposed ceasefire deadline.