Putin says Russia open to direct peace talks with Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed bilateral talks with Ukraine for the first time in years, and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was prepared for any discussion to halt attacks on civilian targets.

Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky face pressure from the United States, which has threatened to walk away from its peace efforts unless some progress is achieved.

Russia and Ukraine said they are open to further ceasefires after a 30-hour Easter truce declared by Moscow at the weekend. Each side accused the other of violating it.

Talks are scheduled this week in London.

Ukraine said it was sending a delegation to meet officials from the United States and European countries.

The talks are a follow-up to a Paris meeting last week where the US and European states discussed ways to end the more than three-year-old war.

Mr Putin, speaking to a Russian state TV reporter, said fighting had resumed after the Easter ceasefire, which he announced unilaterally on Saturday.

Russia, he said, was open to any peace initiatives and expected the same from Ukraine.

"We have always talked about this, that we have a positive attitude towards any peace initiatives. We hope that representatives of the Kyiv regime will feel the same way," Mr Putin told state TV reporter Pavel Zarubin.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, quoted later by Interfax news agency, told reporters: "When the president said that it was possible to discuss the issue of not striking civilian targets, including bilaterally, the president had in mind negotiations and discussions with the Ukrainian side."

There have been no direct talks between the two sides since the early weeks after Russia's February 2022 invasion.

Mr Zelensky, in his nightly video address, said Ukraine stood by its proposal for an end to attacks on civilian targets and was ready for any form of discussion to achieve it.

Previously, the US and Ukraine had framed this as a 30-day ceasefire.

"Ukraine maintains its proposal not to strike at the very least civilian targets and we are expecting a clear response from Moscow," he said.

"We are ready for any conversation about how to achieve this," he added.

He said the London talks "have a primary task: to push for an unconditional ceasefire. This must be the starting point".

The Ukrainian president had earlier said an unconditional ceasefire would be "followed by the establishment of a real and lasting peace".

He also said he had a "good and detailed conversation" with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The US said it would welcome an extension of the weekend truce.

Mr Zelensky said continued Russian attacks during the brief Easter ceasefire showed Russia was intent on prolonging the war, adding Ukraine's forces were instructed to continue to mirror the Russian army's actions.

"The nature of Ukraine's actions will remain symmetrical: ceasefire will be met with ceasefire, and Russian strikes will be met with our own in defence," he said in a post on X.

"Actions always speak louder than words," he added.

US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio both said on Friday that the US could walk away from peace talks altogether if the sides do not make more progress within days.

Mr Trump struck a more optimistic note after those remarks, saying that "hopefully" the two sides would make a deal "this week".

Russia's demands that Ukraine cede all the land that Mr Putin claims to have annexed and accept permanent neutrality.

Ukraine says that would amount to surrender and leave it undefended, if Russia attacks again.

"President Putin and the Russian side remain open to seeking a peaceful settlement. We are continuing to work with the American side and, of course, we hope that this work will yield results," Mr Peskov told reporters.

Meanwhile Russia launched a wave of aerial attacks at Ukraine in an abrupt end to a fragile Easter truce.

"Military action has resumed," Mr Putin told state TV reporters, after Ukrainian officials reported a wave of overnight drone and artillery strikes following the partially-observed 30-hour truce.

Each side had in any case accused the other of thousands of violations of the ceasefire, which Mr Putin ordered in a surprise announcement on Saturday.

Ukraine officials accused Mr Putin of seeking a cheap reputational victory by proposing the truce - which came hours after Mr Trump threatened to walk away from efforts to secure peace in the three-year war if he did not see progress.

Welcoming a day without air raid alerts across the country, Mr Zelensky proposed yesterday "to cease any strikes using long-range drones and missiles on civilian infrastructure for a period of at least 30 days."

Mr Putin said Russia would "analyse" the idea, but questioned how it would work as he accused Ukraine of using civilian buildings - like restaurants and universities - for military purposes.

In rare comments on a specific Russian strike, he claimed Ukraine had been using a university building in Sumy for a military awards ceremony on 13 April, when two Russian ballistic missiles hit the city centre, killing at least 35 people.

"Is it a civilian facility or not? But the regime is using these civilian facilities," Mr Putin said.

Hours earlier, Ukrainian officials reported drone and missile strikes on the Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions.

Ukraine's air force said it had downed 42 Russian attack drones in an overnight attack starting at 2am Monday.