Vladimir Putin suggests Ukraine war is ‘coming to an end’

Russian president damns western support that has allowed Ukraine to hold out and asks for talks with Gerhard Schröder in remarks after diminished Victory Day parade

Vladimir Putin has said he thinks the Ukraine war is winding down – remarks that came a few hours after he had vowed to defeat Ukraine at Moscow’s most scaled-back Victory Day parade in years.

“I think that the matter is coming to an end,” Putin told reporters of the Russia-Ukraine war, 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.