Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday hinted that the Ukraine war could soon end. Speaking to reporters after marking Russia’s Victory Day parade, Putin said: “I think that the ‌matter is coming to an end.” The comment was made in response to a question about whether Western help to Ukraine went too far. The Russian leader said: “They started ratcheting up the confrontation with Russia, which continues to this day. I think it is heading to an end, but it’s still a serious matter.”

Putin’s remarks come as Kyiv and Moscow observe a three-day ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine this weekend. The truce was announced on Friday by US President Donald Trump after negotiations brokered by Washington. European Council President Antonio Costa on Thursday said the European Union was prepared to hold separate talks with Russia and Ukraine “when the right moment comes."

  • GarboDog@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Yeah with him losing because someone inside is gonna get fed up with him enough and convince gods buddy with the guards to let them just finish him off early before old age to save their own country.

    Our Ukraine just straight up wins and takes control of Moscow or something idk, that would end it pretty abruptly too yeah

  • ruuster13@lemmy.zip
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    9 hours ago

    His little operation convinced Europe to rearm and made Ukraine a security exporter. Now he’s down in a bunker desperately looking for ways to save face before the tide turns furher against him.

    • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      No matter how you look at this Russia has lost and this is exactly why, even if you ignore ethics, dictatorships don’t work long term. It just takes one failure like this to set back decades of work. It happens to every dictatorship eventually.

    • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
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      5 hours ago

      Exactly this. Ukraine has started open cooperation with foreign weapons companies, inviting them to come test their autonomous systems in real battlefield conditions. Given that the rest of Europe is arming up against potential Russian hostility, the opportunity to test your new weapons against their most likely opponent is a golden ticket. My guess is a lot of these new designs are proving effective, and Putin is realizing that any more ‘special military operations’ will be taken as proof positive that Russia has turned conquistador and met with overwhelming force by most of the rest of Europe.

      It’s also possible he’s just running out of troops. The last estimate I saw was something like 340,000 Russian casualties…

  • notabot@piefed.social
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    12 hours ago

    The comment was made in response to a question about whether Western help to Ukraine went too far. The Russian leader said: “They started ratcheting up the confrontation with Russia, which continues to this day. I think it is heading to an end, but it’s still a serious matter.”

    I’m not reading that as him saying Russia are going to stop, but that he thinks that the West will stop providing aid to Ukraine soon. Considering that his Washington puppet is doing their best to destabilise NATO, and Europe in general, he could easily be hoping for aid to be cut.

    • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      he could easily be hoping for aid to be cut.

      That’s just flat out wrong, European countries have shown they are willing to support Ukraine for as long as it is needed.
      And have increased aid to cover the loss from USA not helping. There are also long term aid packages like the Swedish Vigen jet fighters that will ensure Ukraine is continuing to strengthen in their military capabilities.

    • marcos@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      So he didn’t notice that Europe created an alternative NATO and just didn’t invite the US?

      Nope, he’s smarter than that. The entire thing is just bullshit for the Russian population.

    • freagle@lemmy.ml
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      12 hours ago

      He is in complete control of it. Conditions are not sufficient for him to end it yet. With the US running out of munitions, losing 16 bases, losing irreplaceable planes and radar systems, and what appears to be the potential for irreplaceable naval losses, the conditions might for him to end the war might be on the horizon.

      • rbos@lemmy.ca
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        5 hours ago

        Putin could order his troops to withdraw from Ukraine tomorrow, yes.

        • freagle@lemmy.ml
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          11 hours ago

          That’s less relevant than you might think. With the US running out of critical munitions, and the demonstration of smaller powers that they can send the US running, the state of play in global security is on the precipice of major change.

          • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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            47 minutes ago

            If the US had actually been a direct combatant, that might make sense. But it’s not, so it doesn’t.

          • fun_times@lemmy.world
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            4 hours ago

            A change away from the old super powers, the USA and Russia, and towards the new super powers, the EU and China.

            Yes, the US is falling but that doesn’t help Russia stay afloat. The US-Iran war may be going massively in Iran’s favor but it also ties up Iran’s military production towards home defense rather than exports to Russia. And Russia will continue spiralling towards irrelevance as it relies more and more on China for its survival. Russians have started viewing China as a possible threat to Russia’s independence.

          • zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 hours ago

            Lemmy seems to be full of geopolitical naive people, or else I cannot explain the downvotes.

            Don’t forget that Russia has to end the conflict to stock up again. In roughly 2 years there will be a much bigger offensive against the NATO.

      • Hubi@feddit.org
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        12 hours ago

        Russia is scraping the absolute bottom of the barrel for personnel and is hemorrhaging a massive amount of money. Their industry is in the gutter and their already crumbling infrastructure is being attacked by long-range drones flying completely unbothered for thousands of kilometers every day. They have lost pretty much every relevant partner on the international stage. The only realistic way to end this war on Putin’s terms is to pull out from Ukraine and face the Russian population. The other ways are a general mobilization (which will lead to the same result as #1) or waiting for the inevitable collapse (which will, again, lead to the same result as #1). He has painted himself into a corner and there is no way out.

        He’s dragging it on for as long as he can but the final result will always be the same.

      • Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works
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        12 hours ago

        The states is just one of Ukraine’s supporters though, and Ukraine are doing a decent job of slowly wearing down Russian forces.

        • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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          42 minutes ago

          The US stopped being a significant supporter of Ukraine when Russian stooge Trump was reelected.

        • freagle@lemmy.ml
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          11 hours ago

          Yes, but the other supporters have relied not only on the US for weapons and security but for strategic direction. As the US falls, so does its military doctrine, leaving Europe in a far worse position than just running out of air defense missiles. And as Europe stops being totally dependent on the US for security, the ability to end the war via negotiated settlement becomes much more practicable.

    • FiniteBanjo@feddit.online
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      11 hours ago

      I think it pretty much only ends when one side agrees to give territory to the other in order to end it.

        • FiniteBanjo@feddit.online
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          10 hours ago

          Russia occupies a lot of Ukrainian territory since the start of the three day operation years ago, Ukraine occupies a little of Russia’s last time I checked.

        • ExoticCherryPigeon@piefed.social
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          8 hours ago

          I mean i whole heartedly agree that Ukraine should gets its pre 2014 borders back, but lets be realistic here that will not happen in any ceasefire today… in best case case scenario the new borders would be drawn at the current contact lines.

  • A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip
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    12 hours ago

    Wow, coming from him, that’s pretty big.

    Let’s see if deeds follow words. I highly doubt it.

    It could be mere opinion chess. Make Ukraine look war hungry in this farce some people call “peace negotiations”

    • red_green_black@slrpnk.net
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      12 hours ago

      I mean when this all started he swore it would be a three day special operation and his puppet keeps changing wheatear or not the US is at war with Iran

    • FiniteBanjo@feddit.online
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      11 hours ago

      Putin is a lot like his puppet Trump. He can say this “special operation” is over as many times as he likes, that doesn’t make it true.

      • Pringles@sopuli.xyz
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        4 hours ago

        Nonetheless, this is the first time he has openly spoken about bringing the war to an end. Until now the narrative was that it will continue until complete victory. That’s why this acknowledgement is a much more momentous statement than the actual meaning of what he said.

        That being said, at this point I think the Ukrainians might keep the war going until they get complete victory. Although they are also incredibly war weary, so probably not.