Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had sent Russia a new peace proposal. He made the statement in an address released on June 26. According to Zelensky, Ukraine conveyed its initiatives both to key partners and to people he described as “Putin’s friends.”
“Russia must take this war away with it from Ukraine — we do not need this war. Ukraine has put forward proposals, and Putin’s friends have heard from us that a meeting is possible and that ending this war is possible.”
Zelensky did not specify who exactly received the proposal on Russia’s side. On the same day, Vladimir Putin met with Alexander Lukashenko at his residence in Valdai. No public statements followed the talks, but the Kremlin said the sides discussed regional security issues among other matters.
A day earlier, on June 25, Lukashenko said he had met representatives of Ukraine in Minsk amid worsening relations with Kyiv. Since April, Zelensky has warned that Moscow may try to draw Belarus into the war. Earlier, he also demanded the removal of relay devices along the Belarus-Ukraine border which, he said, had been used to help guide Russian strikes. He later said those devices had stopped operating.
In early June, it became known that Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, together with Ukraine, were preparing a plan to organize peace talks with Russia. Around the same time, Zelensky published an open letter to Putin proposing a personal meeting, but the Russian president called it “a scrap of paper with elements of rudeness” and said he saw no point in such a meeting. Later, Putin said Moscow was ready for negotiations, but only on terms it had already set out.
Strike on Zaporizhzhia
On June 26, Russian drones again attacked Zaporizhzhia. According to local authorities, warehouses and an office building were damaged. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said a one-story building was partially destroyed and a roof fire covered 800 square meters. Rescuers said 15 people were injured, including one child.