Here’s what’s in Zelenskyy’s victory plan for beating PutinUkraine wants weapons and security guarantees to show Moscow it can’t win the war.October 16, 2024 3:02 pm CET
By Veronika Melkozerova
KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday presented his so-called victory plan to the Ukrainian parliament — aimed at seeking a just peace to the war with Russia thanks to aid and guarantees from its allies.
The plan consists of five main points and three secret annexes.
“Ukraine's victory plan is a plan to strengthen our state and strengthen our positions. To be strong enough to end the war,” Zelenskyy said, adding: "If we start moving with this concrete plan of victory now, we may manage to end the war no later than next year.”
There is a race to get traction on a prospect for ending the war on favorable terms for Ukraine at a time when Russian forces are making slow but steady progress along the front lines, and future support for Ukraine is in doubt thanks to next month's U.S. presidential election.
The idea is to ensure that Ukraine gets iron-clad security guarantees from its allies and is well armed to prevent Russia from using any pause in the fighting to rearm and then attack again.
“This plan can be implemented. It depends on the partners ... it certainly does not depend on Russia,” Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy has already presented his plan to U.S. and European leaders — although so far the reaction from Kyiv's allies has been muted.
He underlined that Russia isn't negotiating.
"Russia still evades honest diplomacy and throws more ultimatums in between the bombs,” Zelenskyy said.
The official line out of the Kremlin is that "the special military operation must end with the fulfillment of all our previously set objectives," according to spokesperson Dmitry `Peskov.
Moscow's conditions amount to Kyiv's capitulation, demanding Ukraine withdraw from Russia-claimed areas, abandon intentions to join NATO, guarantee rights to Russian-speakers, demilitarize and "denazify."
Here is what’s in Zelenskyy’s plan:
1. Invitation to join NATO
Even though actual membership is still an issue for the future, an invitation to join would send a strong signal to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
"An invitation is a strong decision that requires nothing but determination,” the Ukrainian president said.
However, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte would not say if he’d rally allies to support Zelenskyy's push for an invitation, adding that his ongoing deliberations with Kyiv and with member countries could not be shared by way of a press conference.
“The victory plan is not only about an invitation to become a member of NATO. The victory plan has more elements,” Rutte told reporters on Wednesday. “The next steps [are] not just on this issue, but on the general content of the victory plan.”
He reiterated that Russia had no role in deciding if Ukraine should be in NATO.
Member countries have committed to Kyiv’s “irreversible” path to membership, but haven't issued an actual invitation.
2. More weapons faster with no restrictions on their use
Ukraine has prepared a list of weapons to protect itself and to bring “war close to home for the Kremlin.”
It includes training and air defense capabilities to deter Russian attacks, real-time satellite data from allies, ending all restrictions on the use of donated weapons to strike inside Russia, and help from allies in shooting down missiles and drones over Ukrainian territory.
Many of those steps have been blocked over Western fears of crossing Kremlin red lines, but Zelenskyy argued that Ukraine's advance into Russia's Kursk region showed that a lot of that is bluster.
“Thanks to the Kursk operation, we saw that Putin doesn't have enough strength to hold his own when we push really hard,” he said.
3. Deterrence
Ukraine proposes to deploy on its soil a comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrence package that will be sufficient to protect Ukraine from any military threat from Russia.
Faced with that, Moscow would either join an honest diplomatic process for a just end to the war, or it would face no longer being able to continue to fight thanks to the aid being given to Ukraine.
The exact weapons were not revealed by Zelenskyy in his speech to parliament, but he said leaders in the U.S., Germany, France and the U.K. know Kyiv's asks.
4. Strategic economic potential
Ukraine proposes partners from the European Union and U.S. sign a special agreement on common use of Ukraine’s critical resources, like lithium, gas, titanium and others, and produce energy together in the future.
5. Post-war perspectives
Ukraine would bolster European security thanks to its battle-hardened military.
"If the partners agree, we envisage replacing certain military contingents of the U.S. armed forces stationed in Europe with Ukrainian units. After the war,” Zelenskyy said. “Ukrainians have proven that they can be a force that Russian evil cannot overcome.”
Reactions
Some of the Ukrainian MPs listening to the speech felt it was very ambitious.
“The plan looks like others need to do everything for us,” European Solidarity opposition party MP Oleksiy Honcharenko said in a Facebook post.
But Roman Losynskyi, a Ukrainian soldier and a member of the liberal Holos party, saw things to like.
“On one hand, the plan sounds like a fantasy. On the other hand, Patriot, Storm Shadow, and F-16s used to be just as fantastic, as was the sinking of a large part of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation and the control of a piece of Kursk. Everything depends on the decisions of partners and the success of our diplomacy,” Lozynskyi said.
However, he added that Zelenskyy "did not explain how he plans to achieve the implementation of these points."
Peskov called Zelenskyy's plan "ephemeral" and added: "Kyiv needs to sober up and admit its policies have no perspectives."
Zelenskyy will be in Brussels on Thursday to meet EU leaders, where will again push for acceptance of his plan.
"We will hear from President Zelenskyy about his proposed victory plan and work on the next steps to build consensus around a peace initiative," European Council President Charles Michel said in his invitation letter to leaders.
Stuart Lau contributed to this report.
https://www.politico.eu/article/volodymyr-zelenskyy-presents-his-victory-plan-to-ukraine-parliament-war-vladimir-putin/
