A previous international peace conference in June in Switzerland ended with 78 countries expressing support for Ukraine’s ‘territorial integrity’ but without Russia’s participation the path forward was left unclear.
Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said in an interview that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agree that Russia should be included in a future peace conference aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
Scholz also called for increased efforts to resolve the conflict.
“I believe that now is the moment when we must discuss how we get out of this war situation faster than the current impression is,” Scholz said, speaking to Germany’s ZDF public television.
“There will certainly be a further peace conference, and the president [Zelenskyy] and I agree that it must be one with Russia present.”
A previous international peace conference in Switzerland in June ended with 78 countries expressing support for Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” but otherwise leaving the path forward unclear.
Russia did not participate in those talks.
Scholz is facing more political discontent at home over his government’s support, including money and weapons for Ukraine after populist parties that oppose arming Kyiv did well in state elections on 1 September at the expense of parties in his three-party governing coalition.
Some members of his Social Democratic Party have also called for more emphasis on diplomacy toward Russia.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he’s thankful for the support he received at the Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting in Ramstein on Friday.
He urged attendees to speed up deliveries of military hardware to the battlefield and also pressed his case for permission to use those weapons to strike targets deeper inside Russia.
At that meeting, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Biden administration would announce another $250 million (€225 million) military aid package.
The UK said it would send a package of 650 air defence missiles while Germany pledged a further 12 self-propelled howitzers.
“The main thing for us now, at the beginning of autumn, is to strengthen the position of Ukraine, Ukrainians, protect our cities and villages from Russian terror and, of course, provide more opportunities for our soldiers at the front,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
“I thank everyone who works and fights for Ukraine, for our people and our interests, the interests of our country, the Ukrainian state. Every day, every week should make Ukraine stronger.”
On the battlefield, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region published photographs on Sunday night he says show the aftermath of Ukrainian shelling on the village of Nikolskoe.
He claimed that a missile strike damaged two residential buildings, injuring three people.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said that two drones were shot down over the Belgorod region overnight and another in the Kursk region.
And in Ukraine, fierce fighting continues near the town of Pokrovsk. More than 20,000 inhabitants remain in the city, despite Ukrainian authorities continuing to evacuate the strategically important town.
A recent Russian air strike there hit a local electricity substation, leaving many residents without power.
