“It is very important for us to show a plan to end the war that is supported by the majority (of countries) in the world, that is what we are doing on the diplomatic level,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday at a press conference in kyiv, alongside his Slovenian counterpart, Natasha Pirc Musar.
But Volodymyr Zelensky also insisted that his country must at the same time strengthen its military industry, because “Russia only understands force, and respects only the strong”. “These are two things in parallel: being strong on the battlefield, and developing a plan, a clear and detailed plan, which will be ready this year,” he insisted.
Ukraine has already proposed a ten-point peace plan, supported by the West, in 2022, the year of its invasion by Russia, involving the unconditional withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukrainian territory. A peace summit also took place in Switzerland in mid-June, at the initiative of Ukraine, from which Russia had been excluded. Dozens of countries supported kyiv’s efforts, but several key powers abstained and others, led by China, did not make the trip.
Mr. Zelensky also said Thursday in Brussels that the plan on which Ukraine is working, with its supporters, will have to be presented at a second summit. kyiv had indicated that Russia could be invited. “We have many wounded and dead on the battlefield and among civilians. This is why we do not want the war to last for years, which is why we are preparing this plan together, to put it on the table during a second peace summit,” he said. he says.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has put forward his own solution to the conflict: that Ukraine cede five eastern and southern regions and renounce joining NATO. De facto, a request for capitulation, rejected in kyiv as in the West.
