President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Ukraine had handed proposals to U.S. negotiators for a plan to end the war with Moscow and suggested that Russia would use its parliamentary election next month as a pretext to declare a new mobilization.
Zelenskyy’s announcement of fresh proposals for peace talks, largely stalled since the outbreak of the conflict with Iran, comes amid suggestions by both Russia and Ukraine that U.S. negotiators would soon pay a visit to their two countries.
“We have conveyed our proposals to the American side,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
“And the United States can help strengthen our defense, first and foremost with air defense, and put pressure on Russia so that its plans are different — to prepare for an end to the war rather than prolonging it.”
Zelenskyy offered no details on the proposals.
U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were last in Moscow last January and have not yet visited Kyiv.
Ukraine has repeatedly called for a ceasefire after nearly 4-1/2 years of fighting. Russia says it wants a settlement, but any solution must involve Ukraine fully ceding four regions Moscow claims as well as resolving the conflict’s “root causes.”
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Zelenskyy spoke after earlier accusing Russia of using North Korean-supplied ballistic missiles in an overnight attack on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, where a company said seven workers at its steel plant were killed and 21 injured. Three more people, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed by Russian drones and artillery in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, authorities said.
Ukraine says Russia is scaling up its production of ballistic missiles, aiming to exploit Kyiv’s critical shortage of Patriot air defense interceptors that can stop them, and claims Moscow is preparing to recruit more troops for a new push on the front line that stretches 1,250 kilometers (775 miles) along eastern and southern Ukraine.
“Every step Russia takes — increasing ballistic missile production, bringing in North Korean equipment, preparing for mobilization — all of this shows that Moscow is preparing not for peace, but for escalation,” Zelenskyy said on social media.
In his latest remarks, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian intelligence had evidence that Russia would exploit its September “pseudo-election” — a reference to restrictions imposed on the polls — to proclaim a new mobilization to boost the numbers of fighting personnel.
“They are preparing for mobilization in the autumn, immediately after the imitation of parliamentary elections,” Zelenskyy said as part of a plan to “create the appearance that Russians supposedly support the war.”
“Then, following the so-called election, he plans an additional rapid mobilization of several hundred thousand Russians by the end of the year, plus another similar number next year.”
The draft, he said, would be in addition to recruitment through the conclusion of contracts with servicemen.
The Putin-backed United Russia Party and other broadly pro-Kremlin parties are set to retain their dominance in the Russian parliament after the vote.
Russia’s Supreme Court on Monday barred the liberal Yabloko party, the only officially registered party that opposes Moscow’s war in Ukraine, from competing in the election.
Russia declared a “partial mobilization” in 2022 after the launch in February of its full-scale invasion. Zelenskiy has previously suggested that Moscow would introduce a new mobilization.
Russian officials have declined to discuss the issue.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, one of Russia’s most ardent hawks, said last month that Russia needed no new mobilization as 200,000 volunteers had signed contracts in the first half of 2026.
“The Kremlin will not enter serious negotiations or make meaningful compromises on its demands as long as Putin believes that he has a viable military path to achieving his full objectives,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in an analysis Monday.
“Ukraine’s Patriot shortages offer Russia an opportunity to cause very serious damage to Ukraine over the coming winter and will therefore contribute to delaying meaningful negotiations and protracting the war,” it said.
—With files from the Associated Press and Global News
