Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky declared his much-touted and secretive ‘victory plan’ complete on Wednesday in a video address. Moscow has dismissed Kiev’s designs as incapable of altering the course of the conflict.
Details of the Ukrainian roadmap for defeating Russia remain murky, but Zelensky has been giving regular updates on its progress. On Monday, he said it was more than 90% ready, while he now describes it as “fully prepared,” adding that “the most important thing is the determination to implement it.”
Russian officials have dismissed the plan, which Zelensky first announced in August.
”We have heard such statements from the representatives of the Kiev regime many times. We realize what the nature of this regime is. We will continue our special military operation and realize all our goals,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the time.
US President Joe Biden and the presidential nominees of the country’s two main parties, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, are the primary targets of the proposal, according to Zelensky. He intends to travel to the US to brief the candidates while in the country for the UN general assembly next week.
However, officials in Washington are already aware of what Zelensky will be bringing to the table, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield has indicated.
”We have seen President Zelensky’s peace plan,” she told journalists on Tuesday, before expressing confidence that it “can work.”
According to media reports, Zelensky will press his backers for Ukrainian membership in NATO and the EU, continued Western military aid, and other perks.
In August, Kiev sent thousands of troops into Russia’s Kursk Region in an operation Zelensky called an element of the victory plan. The incursion was aimed at forcing Russia to redeploy forces from the front in the east and serve as a bargaining chip in eventual peace talks, according to Ukrainian officials.
Russian advancements in Donbass have continued despite the gamble. Moscow has meanwhile ruled out negotiations with Kiev, citing attacks against local Russian civilians whom Ukrainian troops allegedly targeted on purpose. The Russian army has been pushing Ukraine back in Kursk Region, which Zelensky claimed aligned with his plan.
Kiev is currently lobbying Washington and its allies to allow long-range strikes with donated Western weapons deep inside Russia. President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow would consider any such strike an act of war by NATO and react accordingly.