The peace proposal, one year after the war.
Volodymyr
Zelensky is working on a 10-point plan to end the conflict
that has been ravaging Ukraine for more than 300 days.
With the intention - according to the Wall Street Journal, which quotes EU and Ukrainian diplomats - of presenting it around 24 February next, the first anniversary of the invasion and the period in which there is most fear of the arrival in Ukraine of a new Russian offensive on large scale
Until that date, Kiev's idea was to maximize territorial reconquests with "as many victories as possible", in order to then present itself stronger at any negotiating table.
According to the American newspaper, the Ukrainian leader has already spoken about it with Biden during his visit to Washington.
And
"we have also talked about" the peace plan in Kiev with the G7 partners, reported US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
.
"I can only tell you that we are evaluating what he has proposed" Zelensky, added the head of US diplomacy, according to which the Kiev formula is "a good start", but without specifying how long it will take the United States and Ukraine to evaluate jointly plan.
However much we can speak of peace, to obtain it there must be the will of both sides.
And
the Kremlin hastened to say that they do not know that there are any peace plans on the Ukrainian side
, because Kiev "does not take current reality into account".
If on the one hand the Zelensky-Biden meeting further sealed a vital alliance for Ukraine, on the other it inflamed tensions between the US and Moscow, with the Russian ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, judging the visit of the Ukrainian president is a signal that the USA and Ukraine "are not ready for peace", defining at this point
"probable a clash between Russia and the United States"
.
With the conflict now ready to cross the gates of 2023, even
Vladimir Putin used the word "war" for the first time when
speaking of the military offensive at a press conference on Thursday.
A detail that has not gone unnoticed and that has also triggered reactions in Russia.
So much so that a deputy of the St. Petersburg municipality, Nikita Yuferev, has asked for the opening of proceedings against the tsar, whose words can "be held legally responsible for spreading falsehoods about the actions of the Russian army".
Words aside, the Russian president is preparing war in deeds, convinced of "significant progress on the road to demilitarization" of Ukraine, according to spokesman Peskov.
The tsar has ordered the heads of the defense industry to ensure that the Russian army receives all the weapons and equipment "in the shortest possible time" to fight in Ukraine.
While the Belarusian leader
Aleksandr Lukashenko will arrive in Russia on Saturday
after Putin's recent visit to Minsk.
Moscow then prepares revenge against the European price cap on gas, while the Russian Energy Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Aleksandr Novak, has announced its intention to divert gas supplies from Europe to other areas of the world, although the European market remains "relevant".
Meanwhile, bombs continue to fall across Ukraine
, with Ukrainian authorities reporting attacks on Kharkiv and Kherson, where two civilians died and a kindergarten was damaged in an attack by the invaders.
Kiev has experienced a "huge" electricity shortage of up to 50% of needs, with the Ukrainian capital hit by emergency blackouts.
On the other side of the front, pro-Russians denounced the explosion of a car bomb by the "terrorists of Kiev" in Melitopol, which caused two injuries.
On Thursday, however, the former deputy premier and director general of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, together with the governor of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Vitaly Khotsenko, were injured in Donetsk during shelling by Ukrainian forces.