Kyiv's diplomacy before 18 September 2024: draft, weapons, peace plans
A look back at the diplomatic exchanges in the days before 18 September 2024, from conscription policy to a rival peace initiative.
What was shaping Ukraine's politics in the days leading up to 18 September 2024? Three reports from the preceding week pointed to pressure on several fronts: manpower, Western weapons and competing ideas about how to end the war.
Draft evasion and benefits abroad
On 14 September 2024, after a meeting in Kyiv, the foreign ministers of Poland and Ukraine called for an end to social benefits in Poland for Ukrainian men. They also urged programmes in the European Union to return such men to Ukraine, with the stated aim of stopping draft evasion.
Moscow's warning on NATO weapons
On 12 September 2024, Russian president Vladimir Putin warned that Ukrainian strikes deep into Russian territory with NATO weapons would amount to NATO's formal entry into the war. He argued that NATO personnel programme these weapons, which he described as a "direct confrontation".
A rejected peace initiative
The same day, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy strongly denounced a Brazilian–Chinese peace initiative. He said both countries were effectively siding with Russia, because the approach would let the Russian army keep Ukrainian territory as a way to "de-escalate" the war, rather than helping Ukraine resist the invasion.
Taken together, the reports from those days showed Kyiv pressing partners on manpower and on peace terms, while Moscow raised the stakes over Western-supplied weapons.
