No deal without Russian withdrawal, says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

In the second stage, he said, Ukraine would expel Russian troops from its territory and in the third, would move to fully restore its territorial integrity.

Zelenskyy said he would not accept a cease-fire deal that would allow Russian forces to remain in their current positions, insisting that “we will not accept a frozen conflict”, but gave no further details. He warned that Ukraine would be drawn into a “diplomatic quagmire” like the peace agreement for eastern Ukraine that was brokered by France and Germany in 2015.

In 2014, Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and cast its support behind a separatist rebellion in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland called the Donbas. Russian President Vladimir Putin has named Ukraine’s recognition of the Russian sovereignty over Crimea and its acknowledgement of the separatist regions’ independence as key conditions for halting hostilities.

Zelensky emphasised that Putin must agree to meet him to negotiate any deal to end the fighting.

He said it was important to continue peace talks, but noted that “until the Russian president signs it or makes an official statement I don’t see the point in such agreements”.