Putin: Negotiations on Ukraine Prove Challenging

Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that talks with the United States about Ukraine are "complex" but stressed the need to cooperate with Washington's efforts rather than obstruct them. His comments, published by India Today on Thursday, signal a potentially more collaborative tone as President Donald Trump pushes for a peace deal.

Putin called Trump's peace initiative "a complex and difficult task" that the American president has taken on. He noted that achieving agreement between competing parties isn't easy, but believes Trump is genuinely trying to make it work.

"I think we should cooperate with these efforts instead of hindering them," Putin said in the interview.

Trump has been actively seeking a solution to the Ukraine crisis since taking office. His administration has been developing a peace plan that's currently being discussed in separate channels - between Washington and Kyiv on one side, and Washington and Moscow on the other.

The Russian leader's willingness to engage with Trump's diplomatic efforts marks a shift from the more confrontational rhetoric that has dominated US-Russia relations over the past two years. Both countries face mounting pressure to find an exit strategy from a conflict that has reshaped global geopolitics and strained their economies.

For investors and markets, any genuine progress toward peace talks could ease commodity price volatility and reduce geopolitical risk premiums that have affected everything from energy stocks to grain futures. But the gap between Putin's diplomatic language and actual policy changes remains wide, and previous attempts at negotiation have repeatedly stalled over fundamental disagreements about Ukraine's territorial integrity and security guarantees.