Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, Putin offered some of his most extensive public remarks on the war in weeks.
"We want to end the war and achieve a lasting and full peace throughout Ukraine and in Europe", he said. "We are ready to engage in this negotiation process with anyone who expresses such a will".
Even as he raised the prospect of talks, Putin struck a confident tone about the battlefield, according to Reuters. He claimed Russian troops are advancing and pushing toward the eastern Ukrainian cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, and said Moscow's forces are readying large-scale strikes on Ukraine's energy grid. "I have no doubt the enemy will collapse", he said.
Putin also acknowledged that Ukrainian strikes inside Russia have inflicted genuine damage, pointing to drone attacks as an especially difficult problem for Moscow to counter.
On the question of manpower, Putin rejected reports that Russia is preparing a new mobilization drive to reinforce its army, calling such claims "complete nonsense" and describing them as part of an "information attack" against Russia.
The summit was held under the umbrella of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a bloc founded in 2001 that includes Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran and five Central Asian states, along with observer and partner countries.
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Source: PAP