The Russian parliament is working on a law that would ban what the authorities cast as the harmful promotion of a child-free way of life with heavy fines for "childlessness propaganda", a close ally of President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.

Official data released showed that Russia’s birth rate had slid to its lowest in a quarter of a century while mortality rates are up, with no end in sight to Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

The specifics of Mr Zelensky’s blueprint have been kept under wraps until it can be formally presented to US President Joe Biden.

Russia plans to maintain defense spending at an historic high in 2025 and sees only slight declines in the following two years as President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine shows no sign of ending.

President Volodymyr Zelensky told the U.N. Security Council on Sept. 24 that peace cannot be achieved through negotiations alone, but that Russia must be forced to end the war. Zelensky has been rallying support from Western leaders for his "victory plan" to bring an end to the war,

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy walks as he attends a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine, on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S.