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

Kremlin spokesperson plays down idea of quick resolution of conflict after president said he thought it was ‘coming to an end’

Vladimir Putin has said he thinks the Ukraine war is winding down, hours after he had vowed to defeat Ukraine at Moscow’s most scaled-back Victory Day parade in years and even as two of his senior aides played down the notion of a quick end to the conflict.

“I think that the matter is coming to an end,” Putin said of 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 – a choice unlikely to be accepted in Ukraine and the EU.