In an interview with Italian newspaper Repubblica out on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he is developing a roadmap for a ceasefire in the Ukraine conflict. His goal is to present this plan to US presidential candidates and leaders of the G7 nations.

"The plan will be ready in November. I will present it to [US] President [Joe] Biden, candidates [Donald] Trump and [Kamala] Harris, and the G7 leaders because I want to know what they think about it," Zelensky said.

The proposed plan would involve an active role for Western countries in Ukraine's defense, "ensuring a ceasefire and facilitating the start of negotiations with Russia", according to the report.

This comes against the backdrop of heavy losses suffered by Ukrainian troops in Kursk. 

Read more: Ukraine lost 10,700 troops, 84 tanks in Kursk offensive: Russia MoD

In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a ceasefire under the condition that Ukraine withdraw its troops from the four regions that Russia had annexed in 2022—Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia—and abandon its plans to join NATO.

Putin said that this proposal aimed for a "final resolution" of the conflict, not merely a temporary freeze.

However, Ukraine swiftly rejected this proposal, claiming it as a manipulation to legitimize Russia's territorial gains. Ukrainian officials, including Zelensky and his adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, dismissed Putin's conditions as unrealistic and not a genuine effort to end the war.

Ukraine maintained its stance that any peace deal must include the full restoration of its internationally recognized borders, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

This proposal from Putin came just before a peace summit in Switzerland, where Ukraine's counterproposal, a 10-point peace plan, was being discussed with global leaders. However, Russia was not invited to that summit​.