Kremlin Says No Concrete Plan To End Ukraine War Despite Putin Saying It May Be Near

The Kremlin on Tuesday reiterated that there are no concrete details for ending the war in Ukraine, days after President Vladimir Putin suggested the conflict might be "heading to an end." Kremlin officials stressed that while groundwork for talks exists, no specific agreement or timeline is in place.

Both Moscow and Kyiv resumed strikes overnight after a three-day ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump expired, with each side accusing the other of violations. Russian forces reportedly launched more than 200 attack drones that damaged energy infrastructure and residential buildings, while Moscow said its air-defence units downed dozens of Ukrainian drones.

"The president said that Russia remains open to contact and that work has been done in a trilateral format," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "The accumulated groundwork in terms of the peace process allows us to say that the end is drawing near... But in this context, it is not possible at the moment to speak about any specifics."

Peskov added that Putin would only agree to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky outside Russia if such a meeting were tied to signing a final peace agreement. The comments followed a scaled-back Victory Day in Moscow held amid concern about potential Ukrainian drone strikes and growing signs of war fatigue among Russians, which has weighed on the president's domestic approval ratings.

Ceasefire Collapse And Renewed Attacks

Ukrainian authorities said the three-day pause ended when Russia launched a wave of drone strikes that damaged power facilities and apartment blocks and killed at least four people across the country. Local officials reported one strike on a residential building in Kryvyi Rih — President Zelensky's hometown — killed two people and gravely injured a baby who lost a leg.

Kyiv denied initiating the collapse of the truce and said it had not launched any offensive actions that would justify the Russian strikes. Moscow, however, accused Ukraine of resuming retaliatory attacks and reported that its forces shot down 71 Ukrainian drones after the ceasefire expired.

Ukrainian drones also struck a train station in Russia's western Bryansk region, wounding two railway workers, according to regional officials. In Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, local authorities ordered partial evacuations for families with children from frontline areas of Nikopol.

Diplomacy Stalled

Negotiations to end the conflict have so far produced no breakthrough. Moscow continues to demand that Kyiv withdraw from parts of the eastern Donbas region as a precondition for any deal; Kyiv has rejected that demand. Talks have also been overshadowed by broader regional tensions, including a separate Iran-related crisis, even as the US-led ceasefire initiative briefly raised hopes of renewed diplomacy.

The war has exacted a heavy toll: hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced, according to international estimates. For now, despite comments from both Putin and former US President Trump suggesting the conflict could be winding down, officials on both sides say there are no specific terms or timeline that would bring the fighting to an end.