Zelensky said Kiev was ready to discuss external initiatives from other states to bring peace
Kyiv:
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Kiev and its Western backers could make Russia’s defeat in the war in Ukraine this year “irreversible”, as he thanked Germany for its military support.
The Ukrainian leader told a joint news conference in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that Kiev would always be grateful to Germany for its support during a full-scale invasion of Russia.
“Now the time has come to determine the end of the war, we can make the aggressor’s defeat irreversible already this year,” he said.
Ukraine is expected to launch a massive counteroffensive in the coming weeks to try to retake territory in its east and south from Russian forces, which launched a full-scale offensive in February last year .
Zelensky said Kiev was ready to discuss external initiatives from other states to bring peace to their country, but those proposals should be based on Ukraine’s situation and its peace plan.
“The war is taking place on the territory of our country and therefore any peace plan will be based on proposals from Ukraine,” he said.
Kiev has rejected the idea of any territorial concessions to Russia, saying it wants every inch of its land back. Russia claims it has annexed the Crimean peninsula and four other Ukrainian territories, which Moscow now calls Russian lands.
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