Kiev is preparing a “comprehensive plan” for ending its conflict with Russia, says Ukrainian President Zelensky, and it should be ready by the end of 2024.
“We will also work out all other points of the Peace Formula and prepare a comprehensive plan that will be on the table before our partners”, Zelensky stated at a press conference in Kiev with Slovenian President Natasa Pirc Musar.
“It is very important for us to show a plan to end the war that will be supported by the majority of the world. This is the diplomatic path we are working on.”
The “peace formula” is an optimistic ten-point document Zelensky actually made public in November 2022.
It envisions Russia ceding all formerly Ukrainian territory, withdrawing all of its troops, paying reparations and submitting to war crimes tribunals, among other things.
Moscow has called it “detached from reality”.
This update on the matter came after Zelensky signed a long-term security pact with the EU on Thursday: obligating the bloc to years of military and financial aid.
The US and several of its allies have signed separate aid pacts with Kiev, also pledging to prop up Kiev “for the long haul”.
Western diplomats have provocatively stated that the purpose of such treaties was to protect the Ukraine policy in case Donald Trump wins the November US presidential election.
Zelensky has clarified that Ukraine does not want to prolong the war and does not want the conflict to last for years.
“We have many wounded and killed on the battlefield. We must put a settlement plan on the table within a few months,” he stated, without offering details of casualty figures.
The Russian Defense Ministry says that Ukraine lost 35,000 troops just in May and has lost close to 500,000 since the start of the conflict.
At the same time, Zelensky has renewed his appeal for more long-range weapons and air defences.
„Our cities and communities suffer daily from such Russian strikes, Zelensky wrote in a post on Telegram, but also cited „ways to overcome this”: „destroying Russian missile launchers, striking with real long-range capability and increasing the number of modern air defence systems”.
Western allies have already supplied Ukraine with many long-range weapons: Scalp missiles from France, Storm Shadow from the UK and ATACMS from the US, and US-made Patriot air defence systems.
However, the flow of weapons from the US (Ukraine’s largest arms supplier by far) falterered earlier in 2024 after a bill designating further military aid was held up in Congress, though the legislation was ultimately passed in April, and air defence systems and long-range missiles arrived in May.
But Ukraine has blamed losses of life and Russian territorial gains in the interim on shortages of ammunition and air defence missiles the delay caused.
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