Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed on Monday bilateral talks with Ukraine for the first time since the early days of the war, and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv was eager to discuss a halt to attacks on civilian targets, Reuters reported.

While Zelenskiy did not respond directly to Putin’s proposal, he emphasized in his nightly video address that Ukraine “was ready for any conversation” about a ceasefire that would stop strikes on civilians.

The two leaders face pressure from the United States, which has threatened to walk away from its peace efforts unless some progress is achieved.

Russia and Ukraine have said they are open to further ceasefires after a 30-hour Easter truce declared by Moscow at the weekend. Each side accused the other of violating it.

Ukraine will take part in talks with the U.S. and European countries on Wednesday in London, Zelenskiy said. The discussions are a follow-up to a Paris meeting last week where the U.S. and European states discussed ways to end the more than three-year-old war, read the report.

Putin, speaking to a Russian state TV reporter, said fighting had resumed after the Easter ceasefire, which he announced unilaterally on Saturday. And Moscow, he said, was open to any peace initiatives and expected the same from Kyiv.

“We have always talked about this, that we have a positive attitude towards any peace initiatives. We hope that representatives of the Kyiv regime will feel the same way,” Putin told state TV reporter Pavel Zarubin.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted later by Interfax news agency, told reporters: “When the president said that it was possible to discuss the issue of not striking civilian targets, including bilaterally, the president had in mind negotiations and discussions with the Ukrainian side.”

There have been no direct talks between the two sides since the early weeks after Russia’s February 2022 invasion, Reuters reported.

Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said Ukraine stood by its proposal for an end to attacks on civilian targets and was ready for any form of discussion to achieve it. Previously, the U.S. and Ukraine had framed this as a 30-day ceasefire.

“Ukraine maintains its proposal not to strike at the very least civilian targets. And we are expecting a clear response from Moscow,” he said. “We are ready for any conversation about how to achieve this.”

He said the London talks “have a primary task: to push for an unconditional ceasefire. This must be the starting point.”

Zelenskiy had earlier on Monday said an unconditional ceasefire would be “followed by the establishment of a real and lasting peace”.

Washington has said it would welcome an extension of the weekend truce. Zelenskiy said continued Russian attacks during the Easter ceasefire showed Moscow was intent on prolonging the war, read the report.

Zelenskiy also said that Ukraine’s forces were instructed to continue to mirror the Russian army’s actions.

“The nature of Ukraine’s actions will remain symmetrical: ceasefire will be met with ceasefire, and Russian strikes will be met with our own in defence. Actions always speak louder than words,” he said on X.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio both said on Friday that Washington could abandon the peace talks without progress within days. Trump struck a more optimistic note Sunday, saying that “hopefully” the two sides would make a deal “this week”.

Russia’s demands include Ukraine ceding all the land Putin claims to have annexed and accepting permanent neutrality. Ukraine says that would amount to surrender and leave it undefended if Moscow attacks again.

“President Putin and the Russian side remain open to seeking a peaceful settlement. We are continuing to work with the American side and, of course, we hope that this work will yield results,” Peskov told reporters.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared details of a March attack on Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in a message group that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday.

The revelations of a second Signal chat raise more questions about Hegseth’s use of an unclassified messaging system to share highly sensitive security details and come at a particularly delicate moment for him, with senior officials ousted from the Pentagon last week as part of an internal leak investigation.

In the second chat, Hegseth shared details of the attack similar to those revealed last month by The Atlantic magazine after its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was included in a separate chat on the Signal app by mistake, in an embarrassing incident involving all of President Donald Trump’s most senior national security officials.

The person familiar with the matter, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, said the second chat included about a dozen people and was created during his confirmation process to discuss administrative issues rather than detailed military planning.

The chat included details of the schedule of the air strikes, the person said.

Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, has attended sensitive meetings with foreign military counterparts, according to images the Pentagon has publicly posted.

During a meeting Hegseth had with his British counterpart at the Pentagon in March, his wife could be seen sitting behind him.

Hegseth’s brother is a Department of Homeland Security liaison to the Pentagon.

The Trump administration has aggressively pursued leaks, an effort that has been enthusiastically embraced by Hegseth at the Pentagon.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, without evidence, said that the media was “enthusiastically taking the grievances of disgruntled former employees as the sole sources for their article.”

“The Trump-hating media continues to be obsessed with destroying anyone committed to President Trump’s agenda. … We’ve already achieved so much for the American warfighter, and will never back down,” Parnell said in a statement on X.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said that “recently fired ‘leakers’ are continuing to misrepresent the truth to soothe their shattered egos and undermine the President’s agenda.

Democratic lawmakers said Hegseth could no longer stay in his job.

“We keep learning how Pete Hegseth put lives at risk,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a post to X. “But Trump is still too weak to fire him. Pete Hegseth must be fired.”

Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran who suffered grave injuries in combat in 2004, said that Hegseth “must resign in disgrace.”

A U.S. official at the Pentagon questioned how Hegseth could keep his job after the latest news.

The latest revelation comes days after Dan Caldwell, one of Hegseth’s leading advisers, was escorted from the Pentagon after being identified during an investigation into leaks at the Department of Defense.

Although Caldwell is not as well known as other senior Pentagon officials, he has played a critical role for Hegseth and was named as the Pentagon’s point person by the Secretary in the first Signal chat.

“We are incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended,” Caldwell posted on X on Saturday. “Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door.”

Following Caldwell’s departure, less-senior officials Darin Selnick, who recently became Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff, and Colin Carroll, who was chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, were put on administrative leave and fired on Friday. – REUTERS

Thousands of protesters rallied in Washington and other cities across the U.S. on Saturday to voice their opposition to President Donald Trump’s policies on deportations, government firings, and the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

Outside the White House, protesters carried banners that read “Workers should have the power,” “No kingship,” “Stop arming Israel” and “Due process,” media footage showed.

Some demonstrators chanted in support of migrants whom the Trump administration has deported or has been attempting to deport while expressing solidarity with people fired by the federal government and with universities whose funding is threatened by Trump.

“As Trump and his administration mobilize the use of the U.S. deportation machine, we are going to organize networks and systems of resistance to defend our neighbors,” a protester said in a rally at Lafayette Square near the White House.

Other protesters waved Palestinian flags while wearing keffiyeh scarves, chanting “free Palestine” and expressing solidarity with Palestinians killed in Israel’s war in Gaza.

Some demonstrators carried symbols expressing support for Ukraine and urging Washington to be more decisive in opposing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

Since his January inauguration, Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk, have gutted the federal government, firing over 200,000 workers and attempting to dismantle various agencies.

The administration has also detained scores of foreign students and threatened to stop federal funding to universities over diversity, equity and inclusion programs, climate initiatives and pro-Palestinian protests. Rights groups have condemned the policies.

Near the Washington Monument, banners from protesters read: “hate never made any nation great” and “equal rights for all does not mean less rights for you.”

Demonstrations were also held in New York City and Chicago, among dozens of other locations. It marked the second day of nationwide demonstrations since Trump took office.