Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he has handed a peace proposal to 'friends of Vladimir Putin,' but it remains unclear who received it and what it contains, according to the independent Russian-language outlet Meduza.
The statement came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko at a residence on Lake Valdai on October 24. The meeting was unexpected, and information about it was released only after Lukashenko had likely returned to Belarus, the investigative outlet Agentstvo reported. Putin does not usually hold official meetings at that residence, the independent TV channel Dozhd added.
Lukashenko's visit occurred a day after he publicly demanded that Russia's ambassador to Belarus, Boris Gryzlov, not drag Minsk into the war with Ukraine, Dozhd reported. According to the outlet, Lukashenko had previously disabled signal repeaters that help coordinate Russian troops, at Zelensky's request.
Independent experts interviewed by Dozhd did not rule out that Lukashenko may have brought a proposal from Zelensky to Putin.