Zelensky teases joint plan with allies to force Putin to stop war

The president also underscored the necessity for the Ukrainian army to hold the defenses and continue strikes inside Russian territory, while noting that Kyiv's partners should work to boost the country's air defenses.

Zelensky said in his evening address on August 11 that Ukrainian negotiators had passed their proposals to end the war to the U.S. side.

The comments come as Washington-led peace talks have been deadlocked for months, with both Kyiv and Moscow remaining far apart on territorial issues. Russia has repeatedly rejected Ukraine's calls for a ceasefire along the current front lines and demanded to be handed the entire Donbas region in Ukraine's east — a non-starter for Kyiv.

In spite of this, the Ukrainian leadership hopes that the active phase of the war could end before the winter season, which would likely bring a fresh wave of strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

Recent months saw Ukraine grapple with increasingly critical air defense shortages, specifically in regard to PAC-3 Patriot interceptors, a critical tool for intercepting Russian ballistic missiles regularly hammering Kyiv and other cities.

Zelensky also reiterated his warnings that Putin is planning another wave of mobilization to bolster his invasion forces, a move Kyiv believes could come shortly after the Russian legislative elections in September.