Ukraine war: Selenskyj prepares “comprehensive plan” to end Russia conflict

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that he was drawing up a “comprehensive plan” on how to end the war with Russia from Kyiv’s perspective.

There are no public talks between Ukraine and Russia, and according to public statements by Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the two sides appear to be further apart than ever on the terms of a possible peace settlement.

To rally support for Ukraine’s position, Zelensky hosted a major international summit in Switzerland earlier this month – to which Russia was not invited.

“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 on Friday.

“This is the diplomatic path we are working on,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv together with Slovenian President Natasa Pirc Musar.

More than 90 countries sent heads of state and government and high-ranking officials to the two-day summit with Zelenskyj in Switzerland.

The vast majority of these members agreed to a final communiqué stressing the need for any agreement to respect Ukraine’s “territorial integrity”.

But some of the key participating powers, including India, disagreed, and others, including Russia’s ally China, boycotted the summit in protest at Moscow’s lack of invitation.

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Two years after the war in Ukraine: diseases, displacement and cries for help

Two years after the war in Ukraine: diseases, displacement and cries for help

Ukraine has repeatedly said Russia must withdraw its troops from its internationally recognized territory before peace talks can begin, including the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

Meanwhile, Putin, who launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, is effectively demanding that Ukraine surrender by evacuating even larger areas in the east and south.

He will present a “detailed plan” within a few months, Selenskyj said on Thursday in Brussels.

“We don’t have much time left,” he said, pointing to the high number of casualties among soldiers and civilians.

Russian troops are slowly advancing on the battlefield and claim to have captured another small frontline village on Friday.

They currently occupy about a fifth of Ukraine and in 2022 claimed to have annexed four more regions, none of which were under their full control.

To repel the invading Russian forces, Ukraine is relying on financial and military aid from the West. But after more than two years of fighting, its troops are outnumbered, outfunded and exhausted.