“There are currently no signs that the Russians are preparing to end the war,” he added.

Zelensky is due in Berlin on Wednesday for talks with European leaders and Trump ahead of the US president’s summit with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

The Ukrainian leader said he and his team had held more than 30 conversations with world leaders and high-ranking officials ahead of the talks.

The flurry of diplomatic engagements have been overshadowed by rapid, but so far limited Russian push in the eastern Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia.

A member of the Ukrainian delegation travelling with Zelensky to Berlin told AFP that the Russian gains around the mining hub of Dobropillia “did not influence” preparation for Wednesday’s talks.

Zelensky conceded one day earlier that Russian forces had advanced by up to 10 kilometres, but ruled out swapping territory with Moscow as part of any deal with Russia.

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Markarova, who has served as ambassador in Washington since 2021, has been criticised by some Republicans for being too closely aligned with the Democratic Party.

Her replacement could be an attempt by Zelensky to appease Trump during a sensitive time for Ukraine.

Zelensky reportedly plans to announce Markarova’s replacement next week as part of a broader cabinet reshuffle.
The Ukrainian president has reorganised his cabinet several times since the start of the war.

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There are no public talks ongoing between Ukraine and Russia and based on public statements by Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the two sides appear as far apart as ever when it comes to the terms of a potential peace settlement.

Zelensky hosted a major international summit in Switzerland earlier this month — to which Russia was not invited — to rally support for Ukraine’s position.  More than 90 countries sent leaders and senior officials to the two-day summit with Zelensky in Switzerland.

The vast majority of whom agreed to a final communique that stressed the need for Ukraine’s territorial integrity to be respected in any settlement.  But some key countries that attended, like India, did not agree and others, like Russia’s ally China, boycotted the summit in protest at Moscow not being invited.

Ukraine has repeatedly said Russia must pull its troops out of its internationally recognised territory, including the peninsula of Crimea that Moscow annexed in 2014, before peace talks can start.

Meanwhile Putin, who launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, is demanding Ukraine effectively capitulate by evacuating even more territory across its east and south.

In Brussels , Zelensky said he would put forward a detailed plan in a matter of months.

Russia’s troops are slowly advancing on the battlefield, claiming to have seized another small frontline village on Friday.

They currently occupy around a fifth of Ukraine and in 2022 claimed to have annexed four more regions, none of which they fully controlled.

Ukraine relies on Western financial and military aid to push back the invading Russian forces, but its troops are outgunned, outmanned and exhausted after more than two years of fighting.

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