Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky was unable to secure a major boost in American support in the conflict with Russia during his latest visit to the US and failed to impress Washington with his “victory plan,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
Zelensky’s path to prevailing in the conflict with Russia reportedly includes four key clauses: NATO-like Western security guarantees for Ukraine, the continuation of Kiev’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region to serve as a territorial bargaining chip, deliveries of “specific” Western-made advanced weapons, and international financial aid for Ukraine. Officials in Kiev promised to release the contents of the plan to the public, but said that some details would remain secret.
However, when the Ukrainian leader attempted to showcase his roadmap in the US, he faced a “tepid reception,” according to the WSJ. The paper noted that the administration of US President Joe Biden remains “wary of making moves that Moscow could perceive as escalation, expressed skepticism and said they wanted more details.”
While the US announced a new military assistance package for Kiev, it has so far refrained from “grant[ing] Zelensky’s main request: permission to strike into Russia with longer-range missiles,” the WSJ noted.
The paper added that Kiev’s failure to negotiate a significant increase in US assistance “points to a perilous road ahead,” especially as Ukrainian lines remain under strong pressure in Donbass. The WSJ assessed that without a “major surge” in military support, Ukraine’s goal of reclaiming all the territory it claims as its own “appears distant.”
A Bloomberg report last week also claimed that Western officials did not believe that Zelensky’s “victory plan” would deliver a breakthrough in the conflict, as it contained no “real surprises” and largely amounted to a “wish list.”
Commenting on the roadmap, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov pointed out that it does not contain any specifics and offers nothing to Kiev’s Western backers.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that if the West decides to allow Ukraine to use foreign-made long-range weapons to strike deep into the country, this will mean that NATO is “waging war” against Moscow.
Last week, the Russian leader also proposed that the national nuclear strategy be updated to stipulate that “aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear state” shall be regarded as a “joint attack” and an action crossing the nuclear threshold.
The implication of the change is that it would apply to a possible Ukrainian attack on Russian soil with weapons supplied by the US, Britain, or France.