The Kremlin repeated ​Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assertion that the war in Ukraine was almost ‌over on Tuesday (May 12, 2026), after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ​said Moscow had no intention of ending ⁠it.

“I think that the matter is coming to an end,” Mr. Putin told reporters on Saturday (May 9, 2026) of the war, now in ‌its fifth year.

Asked to comment on Putin’s remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a certain amount ‌of trilateral work with Ukraine and the United ‌States ⁠had been done towards finding a peace deal.

“This ⁠accumulated groundwork in terms of the peace process allows us to say that the completion is indeed approaching,” Mr. Peskov told reporters, though he ​added that it was ‌difficult to provide specific details at the current time.

On Monday, Mr. Zelenskyy said, “Russia has no intention of ending this war. And we are, unfortunately, preparing for new attacks.”

U.S. President ‌Donald Trump has convened multiple rounds of talks ​with the warring sides to try to end the conflict, but no peace deal has ⁠emerged. Russia, which now occupies around a fifth of Ukraine, wants Kyiv to cede additional territory. Kyiv wants Russian troops ‌to withdraw.

Mr. Peskov said Russia would welcome further “U.S. mediation efforts” and Putin was prepared to meet Mr. Zelenskyy in person once the “peace process” was finalised.

“And for that finalisation, in order to put a full stop to it, a great deal of preparatory work still needs ‌to be done,” he said, adding that the conflict could end ​as soon as Kyiv and Mr. Zelenskyy “take the necessary decision”.

The warring sides agreed to a short, U.S.-mediated ceasefire ⁠from May 9-11, coinciding with the anniversary of the Soviet ⁠victory over the Nazis in World War Two.

Although neither side reported large-scale airstrikes during the ceasefire, ‌both said fighting continued along the front line and accused each other of drone and artillery attacks.

Russia on Monday (May 4, 2026) declared a unilateral ceasefire with Ukraine between May 8 and May 9, when Moscow marks its annual World War II Victory Day commemorations, and threatened a “massive missile strike” on Kyiv if Ukraine violated it.

Ukraine responded by declaring a truce of its own between May 5 and May 6, saying it was “not serious” to expect it to observe a ceasefire during a Russian military holiday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin urged a ceasefire in the Middle East during phone calls with Emirati and Qatari leaders on Monday (March 2, 2026) amid the escalating war in the Middle East.

Iran-Israel conflict LIVE

Following U.S. and Israeli barrages on the Russian ally Iran, retaliatory strikes from Tehran have hit targets across the Gulf, forcing authorities to close airspace and stalling traffic at big hubs such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

In a call with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, both leaders “emphasised the need for an immediate ceasefire and a return to the political and diplomatic process,” the Kremlin said in a readout.

The Russian leader also said he was ready to convey to Tehran the UAE’s concerns about Iranian retaliation strikes and to provide assistance stabilising the situation in the region.

During the call with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, both leaders shared concerns about “the risks of the conflict’s expansion and the danger of third countries being drawn into it,” the Kremlin said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier slammed “any attacks on civilian targets, whether in Iran or Arab countries,” in the conflict.

Facing isolation from the West after sending troops to Ukraine, Mr. Putin has sought to strengthen partnerships in the Middle East, maintaining close relations both with Iran and the Gulf monarchies.

The UAE has emerged as a key mediator in the four-year-long Russia-Ukraine war, brokering a number of prisoner exchanges between the two sides and most recently hosting talks between U.S., Russian and Ukrainian officials on a U.S.-drafted plan to end the fighting.

Tehran is Moscow’s key ally and has supplied it with the Shahed drones used in the Ukraine offensive.

The Kremlin warned on Tuesday (February 3, 2026) that the world was heading into a “dangerous” moment as the last U.S.-Russia nuclear treaty is set to expire this week.

New START, the last nuclear treaty between Washington and Moscow after decades of agreements dating to the Cold War, is set to expire on Thursday (February 5, 2026), and with it restrictions on the two top nuclear powers.

“In just a few days, the world will be in a more dangerous position than it has ever been before,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, including from AFP, during a daily briefing.

The Kremlin, which has offered a one-year extension of the treaty, said “we still haven’t received a response from the Americans to this initiative.”

If the treaty is not extended, the world’s top two nuclear powers would “be left without a fundamental document that would limit and control these arsenals,” for the first time.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who cut many international agreements limiting the United States, said in September that an extension of the New START “sounds like a good idea,” but little has changed since then.

The treaty, which included a monitoring mechanism, was signed in 2010 by then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama.

But Russia suspended monitoring inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic and talks on extending the agreement have broken down in recent years due to tensions over the Ukraine war.

Moscow had also accused Washington of impeding monitoring missions on U.S. soil.

In 2023, Russia froze its participation in New START, but it has continued to voluntarily adhere to the limits set in the treaty.

Moscow has last year tested its latest nuclear weapon carriers without atomic warheads, and Mr. Trump said he was moving two nuclear submarines closer to Russia.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa met Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for talks in Moscow on Wednesday (January 28, 2026), as the Kremlin seeks to secure the future of military bases vital for its operations in West Asia.

Russia was a key ally of Mr. Sharaa’s predecessor Bashar al-Assad during the bloody 14-year Syrian civil war.

His toppling at the hands of Mr. Sharaa’s rebel forces dealt a major blow to Russia’s influence in the region and threw the status of its prized military bases in Syria into doubt.

Mr. Putin has been working to build relations with Mr. Sharaa since, though Russia’s continued sheltering of Assad and his wife in Moscow remains a major obstacle to improving ties.

“Much has been accomplished in terms of restoring our interstate relations,” Mr. Putin said in a televised meeting with Mr. Sharaa.

“We have closely monitored your efforts to restore Syria’s territorial integrity and I want to congratulate you on the momentum this process is gaining,” Mr. Putin said, apparently referring to Mr. Sharaa’s recent offensive against Kurdish forces in Syria’s northeast.

Mr. Sharaa, in his second meeting with Mr. Putin since coming to power, said Russia had a “historic role not only in Syria’s unity and stability, but in that of the entire region.”

Neither mentioned Russia’s military presence in Syria, though Mr. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier he had “no doubt” the issue would come up in their talks.

Russia has two remaining military outposts in the country, the Hmeimim airbase and Tartus naval base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.

They are Russia’s only two official military bases outside the former Soviet Union.

The Kremlin withdrew its forces from the Qamishli airport in Kurdish-held northeast Syria earlier this week.

Syria has expressed a willingness to cooperate with Moscow, though has repeatedly demanded that Russia extradite Assad.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday (January 27, 2026) praised Mr. Sharaa as “highly respected” and said things there were “working out very well”.

 The Kremlin ‍said on Sunday (December 28, 2025) that Russian President ​Vladimir Putin and U.S. President ‌Donald Trump do not support ​a European-Ukrainian push for a temporary ceasefire ahead of a settlement, and that Moscow thinks Kyiv needs to make a decision on Donbas.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri ​Ushakov said that a ⁠call between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump lasted 1 hour and 15 minutes and took place at ​the request ⁠of Trump ahead of Trump’s meeting in Miami with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“The main thing is ‌that the presidents of Russia ‌and the United States hold similar views that the ‍option of a temporary ceasefire proposed by the Ukrainians and the Europeans ‍under the pretext of preparing for a referendum or under other pretexts only leads to a prolongation of the conflict and is fraught with renewed hostilities,” Mr. Ushakov said.

Mr. Ushakov said that for hostilities to ⁠end, Kyiv needed to make a “bold decision” in line ​with Russian-U.S. discussions on Donbas.

“Given the current ⁠situation on the fronts, it would make sense for the Ukrainian regime to make this decision regarding Donbas.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published on Thursday (December 4, 2025) that Russia would take full control of Ukraine’s Donbas region by force unless Ukrainian forces withdraw, something Kyiv has flatly rejected.

Mr. Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops in the Donbas, which is made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Putin’s India visit LIVE – December 4, 2025

“Either we liberate these territories by force of arms, or Ukrainian troops leave these territories,” Mr. Putin told India Todayahead of a visit to New Delhi, according to a clip shown on Russian state television.

Ukraine says it does not want to gift Russia its own territory that Moscow has failed to win on the battlefield, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Moscow should not be rewarded for a war it started.

Russia currently controls 19.2% of Ukraine, including Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, all of Luhansk, more than 80% of Donetsk, about 75% of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, and slivers of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

About 5,000 square k.m. of Donetsk remains under Ukrainian control.

In discussions with the United States over the outline of a possible peace deal to end the war, Russia has repeatedly said that it wants control over the whole of Donbas — and that the United States should informally recognise Moscow’s control.

Russia in 2022 declared that the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia were now part of Russia after referenda that the West and Kyiv dismissed as a sham. Most countries recognise the regions — and Crimea — as part of Ukraine.

Mr. Putin received U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Kremlin on Tuesday (December 2, 2025), and said that Russia had accepted some U.S. proposals on Ukraine, and that talks should continue.

Russian Information Agency (RIA) cited Mr. Putin as saying that his meeting with Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner had been “very useful” and that it had been based on proposals he and U.S. President Donald Trump had discussed in Alaska in August.

A diplomatic incident erupted ahead of the arrival of Russian President Vladimir Putin after envoys of the United Kingdom, France and Germany jointly authored an article for a daily newspaper on Monday (December 1, 2025) that blamed Russia for the war in Ukraine and accused Mr. Putin of “total disregard for human life”. Officials of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) described the article by the three envoys as “unacceptable and unusual”.

Talking about the article authored by U.K.’s High Commissioner Lindy Cameron, French ambassador Thierry Mathou and German ambassador Philipp Ackermann, a senior official of the MEA said, “This is very unusual. It is not an acceptable diplomatic practice to give public advice on third country relations. We have taken note of it.”

The article, titled ‘World wants the Ukraine war to end, but Russia doesn’t seem serious about peace’, accused Russia of launching the war on Ukraine and said the attacks by Russia are “a systematic choice by Russia to wage its war of aggression with absolute ruthlessness”.

The three envoys accused Russia of conducting “malign global activity” through “cyberattacks and disinformation” that show “Russian leadership’s appetite for territorial expansion and global destabilisation goes well beyond Ukraine”. The article further targeted Russian President Putin and said, he “stalls and delays” “serious peace talks”.

‘Breaches diplomatic norms’

Earlier, former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal responded to the article and described it as “public grandstanding with an overt propagandist intent”. He said the article was “vicious” that “breaches diplomatic norms.” “It is interference in our internal affairs as the purpose is to fuel anti-Russian sentiments in pro-European circles in India and question the morality of our ties with Russia,” said Mr. Sibal, calling on the MEA to “express its displeasure publicly at this violation of diplomatic norms by the three envoys.”

The senior officials further said India and Russia were likely to sign a mobility agreement that would facilitate employment of a large number of skilled and semi-skilled Indian workers in Russia. Russia is facing a shortage of blue-collar workers after the conflict with Ukraine erupted, prompting citizens of neighbouring countries to avoid the Russian labour market.

An official said the Indian side was not limiting the number of workers Russia wished to recruit, as it was up to the private companies to hire workers, indicating that India would be accommodating the demand of manpower from the Russian side.

The issue of mobility will be deliberated upon by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on December 3, 2025 at a conclave that is being organised by India’s World magazine and the MEA. Apart from Mr. Jaishankar, the conclave will be addressed by German ambassador Ackermann and Australia’s High Commissioner Philip Green.