At his meeting with US President Biden, Ukrainian President Zelensky hopes to receive help to ensure Kiev’s victory in Russia’s war of aggression. He has a plan for this – Moscow has already reacted in advance.
During talks in the USA, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is promoting the “victory plan” he has devised in the fight against Russia’s war of aggression. The plan is intended to build a bridge to a second peace summit, to which Russia is also to be invited, Zelensky said before a meeting with US President Joe Biden. He had spoken out in favor of talks with Russia. The document, which has not yet been published, is also the subject of criticism. Here are some questions and answers on the current state of affairs:
What is known about the “Victory Plan”?
According to media reports, the document contains four to five points that read less like a plan and more like another of the wish lists that Kiev regularly presents to the West. The head of Zelensky’s office, Andriy Yermak, confirmed in New York that an invitation for Ukraine to join NATO was an important point for the country. Kiev hopes that the Western military alliance’s guarantees of assistance will be extended to Ukraine. However, it is considered unlikely that the West will agree to this.
According to unconfirmed reports, Kiev is also insisting on the delivery of “specific” weapons. In recent weeks, Zelensky has regularly pushed for approval to use long-range missiles against targets on Russian territory – so far without success. The list is also said to include an expansion of Western financial aid. Zelensky has repeatedly stated that the country cannot win the war without Western support.
And Kiev reportedly wants the West’s blessing for further ground operations in the Russian border region of Kursk. Ukrainian troops are occupying dozens of towns there. Zelensky wanted to increase the pressure on Russia to negotiate. However, Moscow declared that the Ukrainian invasion made negotiations rather unlikely and that the region would soon be completely liberated from the Russian army.
What have been the reactions to Zelensky’s move so far?
In Ukraine, wild speculation has erupted about the actual purpose of Zelensky’s campaign, which has so far been conducted primarily through the media. And doubts remain as to whether there is a real “plan for victory.”
Former Prosecutor General and former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, who is loyal to former President Petro Poroshenko, described the plan as “unrealistic”. Zelenskyy could therefore simply be playing high stakes in order to ultimately blame the West for the country’s defeat. Lutsenko wrote on Facebook: “It looks as if the maximalist victory plan was written only to avoid receiving the notoriously impossible support, accuse the allies of treason and move on to negotiations with Russia.”
MP Olexander Dubinsky, who is in custody on suspicion of high treason, compared Zelensky to a magician who constantly promises the audience that he will pull a white rabbit out of his hat but fails to perform the trick. He also accused the president of withholding his “victory plan” from those most affected, the Ukrainian people. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the most important ally in the EU, also failed to present the plan to Zelensky at the meeting in New York, criticized the politician, who has been expelled from the president’s party.
How should peace be achieved?
In his speech to the UN General Assembly, Zelensky once again insisted on the implementation of his peace plan, which has been under discussion since the end of 2022. He had rejected initiatives from other countries such as China and Brazil. A key point of his peace plan is the withdrawal of Russian troops from all occupied areas of Ukraine, including the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014. The plan also formed the basis for the peace summit in Switzerland in June, to which Russia was not invited. The warring parties repeatedly accuse each other of not being interested in negotiations and preferring to fight on the battlefield.
Russia will be invited to a second summit, Kiev announced. However, Moscow has already made it clear several times that Russia will not allow such a meeting of Ukraine’s allies to dictate conditions for an end to the war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also stressed in the wake of Zelensky’s appearances and statements in the USA that Russia will not be forced into peace, but rather will stick to its war aims. For Moscow, a key aim of the invasion is to prevent Kiev from joining NATO.
What about possible territorial cessions by Ukraine?
Ukraine’s possible renunciation of territories is a recurring subject of debates about a solution to the conflict. Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, who started the war in February 2022, has repeatedly shown himself willing to negotiate and has called on Ukraine to renounce territories that are not yet controlled by Russia.
In contrast, Zelensky and the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry have repeatedly and categorically ruled out the renunciation of territory, even of a temporary nature, or a freezing of the conflict as part of a peaceful solution. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in New York that there was no alternative to a Moscow victory in the war – and that the West did not understand any other language.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
