Vladimir Putin has until midnight to agree to a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine or leading European states, including the UK, will impose new sanctions against Russia, the German government's spokesman has said.

A s president xi jinping stood shoulder to shoulder with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, watching Russian and Chinese soldiers marching across Red Square on May 9th, they could have been mistaken for equals.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will travel to Ankara on May 15, prepared to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for direct talks — if Putin attends. Zelensky warned that Putin’s absence would signal his unwillingness to end the conflict and called for new sanctions if he fails to show.

In an interview with ABC News, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said Vladimir Putin needed to see "certain dynamics" before agreeing to an extended ceasefire.

With Russian forces grinding forward, Putin has offered few, if any, concessions, but has proposed talks in Istanbul that he said would be held without preconditions and aimed at a durable peace.

President Vladimir Putin said Russia had sufficient strength and resources to take the war in Ukraine to its logical conclusion, though he hoped that there would be no need to use nuclear weapons. Putin ordered thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine ...

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that if President Trump attended the talks, it would put pressure Russia’s leader, Vladimir V. Putin, to meet face-to-face.

Vladimir Putin's 25-year vice-like grip on Russia ends if he accedes to peace talks with Ukraine, experts say. The despot faces mutiny on all fronts at home - notably his army and the rise of "armed" opposition - with acceding to a ceasefire seen as a show of ultimate weakness.