By John Helmer, Moscow
  @bears_with

At President Vladimir Putin’s Victory Day press conference with Russian reporters he was misheard to say that the Ukraine war is coming soon to an end.

Pavel Zarubin, a reporter with  state television with whom Putin often plants question and answer combinations, asked: “You have recently said that the terrorist threat is growing, meaning the Kiev regime. We can see that such strikes are targeting cities located far away from the border, such as Yekaterinburg, Perm, and recently, Cheboksary. Is the West going too far?”  

Putin started by saying: “What exactly is the West? I believe that it is the so-called globalist part of the Western elites. It is them who are fighting against us by proxy of Ukraine. They have it pretty good in this respect, of course, having provoked this conflict.” He then recited a partial history of the collapse of the Istanbul-I framework of agreement, blaming French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for retracting the terms which had already been initialled.  

Putin has also left out of his history the powerful opposition from the General Staff and Foreign Ministry which prevailed in the Security Council debate over whether the terms Putin wanted for his quick exit from the Ukraine battlefield would be enforceable; read more here.  

“Next,” Putin went on with his answer to Zarubin’s question, “ they promised assistance [to Ukraine] and started fostering confrontation with Russia, which is continuing to this day.” Putin’s reference to “they” is to Macron and Johnson. “I believe that the matter is coming to an end, but this is really a serious matter.” Putin was talking about Macron’s end of term and his successor’s election by April 2027, and Johnson’s disappearance since July 2022.

Putin then expressed hopefulness of a change in European polict. “The question is why they are doing this. First, they expected a ‘crushing defeat’ of Russia, as we know, the collapse of Russian statehood within a matter of several months. It did not work out. And then they got stuck in that groove, and now they cannot get out of it. That’s the problem. There are certainly clever people over there, those who certainly understand the essence of the current events. I hope that these political forces will gradually return to power or will take power into their own hands with support from the overwhelming majority of European countries.”

This was no forecast for French, British or German politics. Putin ended his press conference on more wishfulness. “I hope the understanding that this approach was mistaken is already beginning to emerge and will continue to grow stronger. And I hope that relations will eventually be restored with many of the countries that are currently attempting to denounce us. The sooner that happens, the better it will be for us and, in this case, for the European countries.”In the discussion on Monday with Pelle Neroth Taylor in Sweden and Martin Sieff in the US, we explain why Putin’s  sooner isn’t so soon at all. Click to view or listen.

by Editor - Tuesday, May 12th, 2026