Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is preparing a “comprehensive plan” to end the war with Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Friday that he is developing a comprehensive plan to end the ongoing conflict with Russia, saying he is convinced that it will enjoy the support of the majority of the international community.

“It is very important for us to present a plan to end the war that is supported by the majority of the world,” Zelensky said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday. “This is the diplomatic path we are working on,” he added.

Although there are no public talks between Ukraine and Russia, the two sides appear to be far from reaching agreement on the terms of a possible peace settlement, according to public statements by Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine has consistently stressed that Russia must withdraw its troops from internationally recognized Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014, before peace talks can begin.

Putin, who launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, is effectively demanding that Ukraine surrender by giving up even more territory in its eastern and southern regions.

Earlier this month, Zelensky hosted a major international summit in Switzerland, to which Russia was not invited, in an effort to mobilize support for Ukraine’s position. The vast majority of the more than 90 countries that sent their leaders and senior officials to the two-day summit agreed on a final communiqué that stressed the need for any agreement to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

While Russian troops are slowly advancing onto the battlefield and reportedly captured another small frontline village on Friday, they currently occupy about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory. In 2022, Russia claimed to have annexed four more regions, none of which it fully controls. Ukraine is heavily dependent on Western financial and military aid to counter encroaching Russian forces, but its troops are outnumbered and outgunned and exhausted after more than two years of fighting.

On Thursday, Zelenskyj said in Brussels that he would present a detailed plan within the next few months and stressed that the situation was very urgent given the high number of casualties among soldiers and civilians.


One dead and 12 injured in Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Dnipro region

A residential building in Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine, was hit by a Russian missile on Friday. Official reports said at least one person was killed and 12 others were injured. The nine-story building was significantly damaged, with the top four floors collapsing under the force of the attack.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko warned that the death toll was expected to rise as more people were trapped in the damaged building. Later updates from the Interior Ministry showed that the fire at the site had been successfully extinguished and the remains of one person had been discovered under the rubble. In addition, two people were reported missing.

Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the region, said that among the 12 injured was a seven-month-old baby. Three of the injured were in critical condition.