Russia rejects Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s peace formula as basis for negotiations

Russia has rejected Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s peace formula as a basis for negotiations. Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Zelenskiy’s idea of driving Russia out of eastern Ukraine and Crimea with Western help and getting Moscow to pay damages to Kyiv is an illusion.

Zelensky is pushing a 10-point peace plan that envisages Russia respecting Ukraine’s territorial integrity and pulling out all its troops, but Moscow dismissed it on Wednesday, reiterating Kyiv must accept Russia’s annexation of the four regions – Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.

On Wednesday Ukraine’s recently liberated southern city of Kherson suffered intense mortar and artillery attacks from Russian forces across the Dnipro river. Kherson has remained under bombardment from Russian forces which had retreated to the east bank of the river when the city was retaken in a major victory for Ukraine last month.