Zelensky ready to unveil ‘victory plan’ to end war
Announcement of plan comes as Ukrainian strikes hit a warehouse believed to contain guided missiles and shells deep in Russian territory.
President Volodymyr Zelensky says he has completed a “victory plan” to bring peace to Ukraine and avoid “frozen conflicts” – a reference to the years of low-level fighting in the Donbas region that preceded Russia’s invasion in 2022.
He pledged last month to present the plan to US President Joe Biden, and appears poised to do so next week while in New York for the UN security council and general assembly.
Zelensky has given few clues as to the content, indicating only that the plan aims to create peace terms acceptable to Ukraine.
“Today it can be said that our victory plan is fully prepared. All the points, all key focus areas and all necessary detailed additions have been defined,” he said in his nightly video address to the nation on Wednesday.
“The most important thing is the determination to implement it.”
There was, he added, no alternative to peace, “no freezing of the war or any other manipulations that would simply postpone Russian aggression to another stage”.
However, Moscow and Kyiv appear to remain as far apart as ever on a deal to end the biggest conflict in Europe since WWII. Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Zelensky, said this week that Ukraine did not envisage surrendering any territory.
The Kremlin has said peace is only possible if Kyiv gives up Crimea, as well as four other regions in the east and south of Ukraine. It has also said Ukraine should formally renounce any plans to join Nato.
Donald Trump said he would also “probably” meet with the Ukrainian leader. The two last spoke on the phone in July, but have not met in person since 2021. Trump has pledged to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours if he wins November’s US presidential elections.
There are fears in Kyiv that he will cut military aid to the country and force it to cede land to Russia if he returns to the White House. Trump refused to say during a presidential debate last week if he wanted Ukraine to triumph. “I want the war to stop,” he said, claiming falsely that “millions” of people had died.
Zelensky’s plan was the focus of a “peace summit” hosted by Switzerland in June, with the participants pledging to meet again in November.
Russia was not invited to the June summit and branded it meaningless, though Ukraine and its allies say it can attend the next gathering.
Separately, a Ukrainian military spokesman told reporters that Russia’s drive to retake territory in the Kursk region, captured in a surprise incursion, had stalled. “They tried to attack from the flanks, but they were stopped there,” the spokesman told the AFP news agency.
“The situation was stabilised. Everything is under control.”
The Times
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