G7 backs Ukraine as Zelenskyy says he wants to end war next year

Leaders of the G7 alliance have reaffirmed support for Ukraine “for as long as it takes” as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he wants to end the war through talks next year.

The Ukrainian president said in a radio interview aired on Saturday that his side will do everything possible so that the war with Russia ends in 2025 “through diplomatic means”.The Russian leader told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday during their first direct conversation in almost two years that an agreement would also need to address the “root causes” of the conflict, which include NATO expansion.

Russian advances

Zelenskyy also conceded that the situation in eastern Ukraine was difficult and Russian forces were making advances.

Moscow’s forces are bearing down on Kurakhove, which has a thermal power plant and is only seven kilometres (four miles) from Pokrovsk, a large town that, for much of the war, has been one of Ukraine’s logistical linchpins.

On the battlefields of eastern Ukraine, Russia is now advancing at the fastest rate since the war’s earliest days in 2022.

North Korea has sent thousands of soldiers to the Russian region of Kursk to help Moscow fight off a Ukrainian incursion that started in August.