Putin wants to end the war in Ukraine, says 'sooner the better'

A day after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy's visit to the US, Russian President Vladimir Putin has started speaking of wanting to end the war in Ukraine.

Putin said on Thursday that Russia wants to end the war, and "the sooner (it is), the better."

"Our goal is not to spin the flywheel of military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war," Putin told reporters. "We will strive for an end to this, and the sooner the better, of course."

"All armed conflicts end one way or another with some kind of negotiations on the diplomatic track," he added. "Sooner or later, any parties in a state of conflict sit down and make an agreement. The sooner this realisation comes to those who oppose us, the better. We have never given up on this."

However, his call for an end to the war was met with sharp criticism from the United States, per CNN.

In a statement, White House spokesman John Kirby said Putin had "shown absolutely zero indication that he's willing to negotiate" an end to the war which has been going on for ten months now.

"Everything he (Putin) is doing on the ground and in the air bespeaks a man who wants to continue to visit violence upon the Ukrainian people (and) escalate the war", Kirby told reporters.

Kirby added that US President Joe Biden is willing to speak to Putin, but only after he "showed a seriousness about negotiations." Ukraine and its allies have maintained that Russia's call for peace is nothing but futile attempts at buying more time following a series of losses on the battlefield.

This is also the first time that Putin has called his invasion of Ukraine "a war."

Russia calls its action in Ukraine a "special military operation" to stamp out what it sees as threats to its security. Using words such as "war" or "invasion" to describe the intervention or refer to actions against civilians is prohibited.

The country has even passed a law that makes it compulsory for Russians to describe Moscow's actions as a "special military operation," or face up to 15 years in prison.