WOBBLING VLAD
Desperate Putin admits Russia is ready for PEACE TALKS as thousands of Ukrainian troops still hold occupied Kursk
Moscow has previously warned that Ukraine's Kursk incursion makes any peace talks impossible
RUSSIAN dictator Vladimir Putin has said he his ready for peace talks with Ukraine.
The despot has waged an illegal war on Ukrainian soil for more than two years - but has now said he is "ready to negotiate" just weeks after Ukrainian soldiers burst into Russia.
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Putin said the Kremlin is willing to revisit a failed deal from mediated talks between Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul early on in the war.
Speaking at the 2024 Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok today, he said: "Are we ready to negotiate with them?
"We have never refused to do so, but not on the basis of some ephemeral demands, but on the basis of those documents that were agreed and actually initialled in Istanbul."
A preliminary agreement between Russia and Ukraine was reached in the Turkish city not long after the war began but never implemented.
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The terms of the deal were never made public.
Ageing Putin, 71, said China, India and Brazil could act as mediators in potential new peace talks.
He later added: "If there is a desire of Ukraine to carry on with the negotiations, I can do that."
Putin has previously floated peace talks - but has always insisted that Russia would take, or get to keep, occupied Ukrainian territory.
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He is likely to remain firm and want occupying forces to remain in the areas of Ukraine they've invaded.
Kyiv has previously said it will not directly engage with Russia during any negotiations to end the war and has been steadfast on not giving up any of its territory.
It comes mere weeks after Ukraine launched a surprise attack on August 6 from the Sumy province - near the border with Russia.
They now claim to control over 500 square miles of Putin's territory in Russia’s worst defeat on home soil since World War Two.
Moscow has previously said the incursion renders any peace talks between the countries impossible, marking a U-turn in Mad Vlad's policy.
Ukraine’s President Zelensky said the blitz was part of a master plan to help end the war.
Watch Ukrainian troops exchange machine gun fire on frontline in dramatic POV footage
It served a humiliating blow to Putin's efforts - as the so-called "special operation" he said would last just weeks in early 2022 approaches the three-year mark.
Footage has revealed the true extent of Ukraine's success in Kursk with hordes of Russian soldiers surrendering and being taken as prisoners of war.
Raging Putin hit back with indiscriminate air attacks on Ukrainian cities as he licks his wounds from the crushing defeat.
Just days ago two Russian ballistic missiles were launched at a military academy and hospital inside Ukraine.
Some 271 people were injured in what has been described as one of the deadliest attacks since the start of the war.
Putin said today of the secretive Istanbul talks in 2022: "We managed to reach an agreement, that is the whole point.
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"The signature of the head of the Ukrainian delegation who initialled this document testifies to this, which means that the Ukrainian side was generally satisfied with the agreements reached.
"It did not come into force only because they were given a command not to do so, because the elites of the United States, Europe - some European countries - wanted to achieve a strategic defeat of Russia."
Is Putin's 'peace talks' offer sincere?
By Alan Mendoza, Founder and the Executive Director of the Henry Jackson Society
Vladimir Putin is not known for making offers out of the goodness of his heart.
So his sudden interest in peace talks to end the Ukraine War must be on account of something other than a genuine desire to end the bloodshed he initiated in 2022 by invading Ukraine.
The reason is likely obvious: it has finally dawned on Putin that a war that was supposed to be over in days has no easy end.
Ukraine’s surprise August invasion of Russia’s Kursk province will have played a factor in his thinking.
Putin has long posed as the champion of Russian security. Yet he has been unable to reverse a humiliating seizure of Russian land.
With the prospect of Ukraine soon being able to use long-range missiles to target Russian missile and air bases, the immediate future looks challenging for Putin.
His raising of peace talks are an acknowledgement that Ukrainian successes are unnerving him.
But before we get too excited, Putin has not revealed any of the terms he is offering.
And if they involve punishing Ukraine by forcing it to give up territory, then they will be unacceptable.
So the onus must now be on Putin outlining what he is proposing, without allowing him to stall for time, or to disrupt Ukraine’s advances.
It is military pressure on Putin that has got us to this point.
It will need to continue for us to be certain that he is really considering ending this terrible war of his own making.
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