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Zelensky admits Ukraine unwilling to prolong conflict due to high casualties

Previously, Ukraine announced that it will prepare a settlement plan after the first conference in Switzerland, which will be presented to Russia at the second similar meeting

BRUSSELS, June 27. /TASS/. Ukraine does not want to prolong the conflict due to the high count of killed and injured at the battlefield, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said upon arrival to the EU Summit.

"We must put this [settlement] plan on the table within few months. We do not have much time, because we have a lot of killed and injured on the battlefield. […] Therefore we do not want this war to last for years. Therefore we want to prepare this peace plan for the second summit," Zelensky said.

Previously, Ukraine announced that it will prepare a settlement plan after the first conference in Switzerland, which will be presented to Russia at the second similar meeting.

Meanwhile, Zelensky added that Ukraine had no contacts with Russia after the conference in Switzerland, where a number of countries stated the settlement must be discussed with Moscow.

"I had no dialogue with them during all this time. […] If it happens in shadow, in secret, this is not about us. We want to do that openly," he noted.

On June 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin named the preconditions for a settlement in Ukraine. They include withdrawal of Ukrainian armed forces from Donbass and Novorossiya and Kiev’s rejection of accession to NATO. In addition, Russia considers the withdrawal of all Western sanctions and establishment of non-aligned non-nuclear status of Ukraine necessary for that.

Putin pointed out that, if Ukraine and the West reject these conditions, they may change in the future. Kiev rejected the Russian peace plan.