Ukraine’s President Says Plans on the Way to End War with Russia- See Conditions
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr
Zelensky on Friday said he was drawing up a “comprehensive plan” for how Kyiv
believes the war with Russia should end.
There are no public talks ongoing
between Ukraine and Russia and based on public statements by Zelensky and
Russian President Vladimir Putin, the two sides appear as far apart as ever
when it comes to the terms of a potential peace settlement.
Zelensky hosted a major international summit in
Switzerland earlier this month — to which Russia was not invited — to rally
support for Ukraine’s position.
“It is very important for us to show a plan to end the war
that will be supported by the majority of the world,” Zelensky said on Friday.
“This is the diplomatic route we are
working on,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv alongside Slovenian
President Natasa Pirc Musar.
More than 90 countries sent leaders and
senior officials to the two-day summit with Zelensky in Switzerland.
The vast majority of whom agreed to a
final communique that stressed the need for Ukraine’s “territorial integrity”
to be respected in any settlement.
But some key countries that attended,
like India, did not agree and others, like Russia’s ally China, boycotted the
summit in protest at Moscow not being invited.
Ukraine has repeatedly said Russia
must pull its troops out of its internationally recognised territory, including
the peninsula of Crimea that Moscow annexed in 2014, before peace talks can
start.
Meanwhile Putin, who launched the
full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, is demanding Ukraine
effectively capitulate by evacuating even more territory across its east and
south.
In Brussels on Thursday, Zelensky said he would put
forward a “detailed plan” in a matter of months.
“We don’t have too much time,” he said, pointing to the
high casualty rate amongst soldiers and civilians.
Russia’s troops are slowly advancing
on the battlefield, claiming to have seized another small frontline village on
Friday.
They currently occupy around a fifth
of Ukraine and in 2022 claimed to have annexed four more regions, none of which
they fully controlled.
Ukraine relies on Western financial
and military aid to push back the invading Russian forces, but its troops are
outgunned, outmanned and exhausted after more than two years of fighting.
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