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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented his victory plan to his US counterpart Joe Biden during a meeting at the White House on September 26.
President Zelensky is visiting the United States this week. The leader has revealed his winning plan, designed to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to accept a fair peace deal by boosting Ukraine’s firepower and giving it the upper hand after nearly three years of conflict. However, the details of the plan have not been made public.
Kiev said it was preparing a victory plan after Ukraine launched a surprise attack on Russia's Kursk province, the most significant attack on Russian territory since World War II and a major blow to the Kremlin.
According to experts, the surprise campaign from Kiev has partly exposed Russia's weakness in protecting its territory and challenged the "red line" set by the Russian President to prevent Western allies from increasing arms supplies to Ukraine.
In addition to the military action in Kursk, political developments in the United States are also an important factor that motivates Kiev to push forward with a “victory plan” right now. With the US presidential election taking place in a tense and unpredictable manner, the outcome of the race in November could bring former President Donald Trump back to the White House and put US support for Ukraine in jeopardy.
Contents of the proposed plan
In an interview with the Kyiv Independent last week, a source close to President Zelensky said that their aim was to set conditions and put pressure on Russia to not ignore the peace formula and the peace summit.
Head of the Presidential Administration Andriy Yermak revealed that joining NATO is part of the plan. According to information obtained by the Kyiv Independent on September 22, instead of in the next few years, Ukraine will apply for NATO membership in the next few months.
Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Mr. Yermak also said the five-point victory plan included both diplomatic and military provisions.
In addition, a provision that will certainly be included in this plan is the US and other allies' approval for Ukraine to use long-range weapons, including Western-supplied missiles, to target military sites deep inside Russian territory.
Kiev has long been pushing its allies to lift arms restrictions because that would allow Ukraine to destroy military airfields that Russia uses to launch aircraft to attack Ukrainian infrastructure, as well as weaken Russia's air defense system.
One provision that is definitely not included in this peace plan is a partial ceasefire. President Zelensky has personally denied this information.
What was the initial reaction from the allies?
The US response to initial revelations about President Zelensky’s victory plan was not overly optimistic, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on September 25, citing a number of US and European officials. The White House was concerned that Mr. Zelensky’s plan lacked a clear strategy to win against Russia, the report said.
Some officials familiar with the plan said it focused too much on requiring more weapons and lifting restrictions on long-range missile strikes.
“Not impressive, there's not much new in that plan,” a senior official told the WSJ.
Meanwhile, other White House officials are concerned that President Zelensky’s plan does not offer clear, actionable steps that Mr. Biden can support in his remaining four months in office. European officials say parts of the plan have yet to be developed in detail, while only the weapons request is the most specific.
Asked what would happen if President Biden rejected the plan, Mr. Zelensky expressed “that is a terrible thought.”
“That means Biden doesn’t want to end the war at any cost to defeat Russia. And then we will fall into a long, tiring war that could kill many people. But that doesn’t mean I blame Biden,” President Zelensky said in an interview published in the New York Times on September 22.
