Russia is ready for new round of talks in Istanbul, says Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday (June 27) said that the peace demands of Russia and Ukraine were "absolutely contradictory", following two rounds of peace negotiations which have been unable to move the parties closer to a sought-after ceasefire. Russian and Ukrainian negotiators exchanged memorandums setting out their respective blueprints for how the three-year-old conflict should end at peace negotiations in Istanbul earlier this month.

But apart from massive prisoner swaps, the negotiations have not led to any movement towards calling off the conflict, spurred by Russia's military campaign in February 2022.

"As for the memorandums, naturally, nothing unexpected occurred. these are two completely opposite memorandums," Putin said during a press conference in Minsk, Belarus. "That's why negotiations are being organised and conducted, in order to find a path to bringing them closer together," he said.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Russia's offensive, which has forced millions from their homes and devastated much of eastern Ukraine. At negotiations, Russia has insisted that Ukraine surrender even more territory and relinquish Western weapons aid as a pre-requisite to a peace agreement -- conditions Kyiv calls unacceptable. Putin has repeatedly rejected the appeals for a standstill ceasefire and has stepped up his air raids as his troops push forward across the front lines, taking yet more territory beyond the five Ukrainian territories Russia says it has already annexed.

He indicated that the two parties would "continue further contact" once exchanges of prisoners agreed upon at the talks on June 2 had been finalised. The two parties have had several exchanges since they came to an agreement to free over 1,000 detained soldiers each -- all wounded, sick or below 25 years. Russia is also willing to transfer the remains of 3,000 slain Ukrainian soldiers, Putin added.

He also recognised some fiscal stress from the military operation, which has seen Russia heavily ramp up its weapons and soldier expenditure. "6.3 percent of Russia's GDP is spent on defence requirements. That's 13.5 trillion rubles ($172 billion)," Putin said.

"It's a lot," Putin said, admitting it had the potential to cause headaches for the government budget. "We paid for it through inflation, but now we are struggling with this inflation," he added. During a press conference after a meeting with allies in Belarus, Putin also criticized the "brash" commitment by NATO members to boost their defence expenditure to five percent of GDP.