Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that the Ukraine conflict is “not ending” and thanked the United States for facilitating talks, while emphasizing that the issue ultimately concerns only Russia and Ukraine.“We are grateful to the United States for facilitating dialogue, but this is only a matter for Russia and Ukraine,” Putin said. He also said, “I think the Ukraine conflict is coming to an end.”Putin further said that Russia is still awaiting a response from Ukraine regarding a large prisoner-of-war exchange proposed by US President Donald Trump.“We are counting on the Ukrainian side to respond to the proposal made by the President of the United States. Unfortunately, we have not received any proposals so far,” Putin told reporters.This comment comes amid renewed diplomatic efforts regarding the temporary ceasefire announced earlier by Trump. The US President had proposed a three-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine from May 9 to 11, coinciding with Russia’s Victory Day marking the Soviet Union’s role in World War II.In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the ceasefire would include stopping “all kinetic activities” between the two countries.Meanwhile, Putin ally Yuri Ushakov said Trump’s hopes of extending the ceasefire beyond the stated period were “groundless”.“Yes, (Trump’s expectation of extending the ceasefire) is unfounded,” Ushakov told reporters, according to Russian state news agency Tass. “But he expects it, why not? And he’s working towards it.”He said the continuation of any ceasefire depends on both Russia and Ukraine. “But it (a long-term ceasefire) depends not only on them, but also on the other two sides,” Ushakov said.On the proposed prisoner exchange, Ushakov said that Russian and Ukrainian agencies are currently working on lists of prisoners of war and the process could move faster if the two sides reach an agreement.“As far as I know, the relevant agencies are actively working on the lists today, and if they reach an agreement through their channels, the exchange will begin,” Ushakov said.He also claimed that Russia had provided Ukraine with a list of prisoners even before the ceasefire was announced, but received no response.Ushakov said, “On our side, preliminary work (on the exchange of prisoners) was going on even before the announcement of this ceasefire. And we had already provided the lists to the Ukrainian side. We did not receive any response from them. But now, probably because of pressure from (US President Donald Trump), as I mentioned earlier, they will hurry up to prepare the lists.”He said, “First of all, we need to reach an agreement to compile this list, identify the actual individuals and then start the exchange. All this takes time, but I think it can be done quite quickly. This is what we have agreed on, but we will see how it turns out in practice.”
