Ukraine demands army of 800,000 under peace plan

Ukraine is insisting on a target strength of 800,000 troops for its military under a revised version of the US peace plan to end the almost four-year-long war with Russia.

"That is the real strength of today's army, and it has been agreed with the military," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told journalists in Kiev on Thursday.

This point of the current 20-point draft has therefore been sufficiently revised, he added. The original US plan that became known in November cited a cap of 600,000 Ukrainian troops.

However, observers doubt that the army still has this number in reality. According to the public prosecutor's office, there were more than 300,000 cases of desertion or absence by troops since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

After a record high of more than 21,600 registered cases in October, the authorities classified the figures as confidential from November onwards.

Before the war, Ukraine had a standing army of about 290,000 personnel. To offset any numerical disadvantage relative to Russia, Kiev expects its Western allies to contribute significantly to military spending in the event of a peace agreement.

Before the war began, Ukraine was the poorest country in Europe, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Foreign donor states now contribute more than 40% of the national budget as Ukraine seeks to join the European Union.