Zelensky reveals ‘victory plan,’ calls for urgent NATO membership
"Blackwater paved the way for Wagner "CIA boss says west should not be intimidated by Russia’s nuclear threats""
The plan includes permission for strikes inside Russia and assistance with air defenses, but Western reaction to it has been muted so far.
President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses members of the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv on Wednesday. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/AFP/Getty Images)
By Siobhán O'Grady and Kostiantyn Khudov Updated October 16, 2024 at 4:06 p.m. EDT |Published October 16, 2024 at 8:03 a.m. EDT
KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented a broad description of his five-point “victory plan” to Ukraine’s lawmakers on Wednesday, describing the first step as an immediate and unconditional invitation to join NATO and the last as an offer to replace U.S. troops in Europe with Ukrainian units after the war — suggestions sure to incense the Kremlin, which has long used the threat of NATO to justify its invasion.
The plan has already been shared with Ukraine’s allies but there has been limited public comment about it, making it unclear if Zelensky’s recommendations have been accepted. Being part of NATO would afford Ukraine the protection of the alliance’s other members in the case of any future attack.
The second point in the plan, Zelensky said, is a permanent strengthening of Ukraine’s security through guarantees from partners that their weapons can be used for strikes inside Russia and that Ukraine’s neighbors will conduct joint air defense operations to protect Ukraine’s skies. It will also allow for continued operations inside sovereign Russian territory to ensure buffer zones that protect Ukraine, he said.
The third is a nonnuclear deterrence plan, and the fourth guarantees economic security and protection of Ukrainian natural resources that he said will strengthen Ukraine’s partners and weaken Russia’s economy and “war machine.”
The five points include three classified sections, one of them related to the deterrence point that has already been presented to U.S., British, German, French and Italian partners, Zelensky said.
If successfully implemented, Zelensky said, this plan could end Russia’s war in Ukraine by late next year. Russian President Vladimir Putin “must see that his geopolitical calculations are doomed,” Zelensky said. “Russians must feel that their czar has lost geopolitically to the world.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the plan. He said Kyiv needs to acknowledge that its policy is futile and “sober up and realize the reasons that led to this conflict.” Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, accused Zelensky of “pushing NATO into direct conflict with our country.”
“The partners of the Kyiv regime have already demonstrated how they see Ukraine in the security architecture: They see Ukraine in a coffin and Ukrainian citizens in the grave as well,” she said.
[insert: This looks a narrow version of the footage of the embedded video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ITxHfwgEilg ] Ukraine’s patrol police on Oct. 15 released drone video of Ukraine’s city of Toretsk reduced to ruins, with smoldering buildings, as Russian forces pressed on. (Video: Reuters)
[and this includes some of similar footage of the bombed buildings
]
Zelensky’s presentation of the plan comes after trips to the United States, where he shared it with President Joe Biden and presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and to various European capitals, where he briefed other key partners.
He has said for weeks that the success of the plan depends entirely on Ukraine’s partners. Before the visits, he said he planned to pitch it as a chance for Biden to leave office with the legacy of having helped secure a “just peace” for Ukraine.
Little public progress appears to have come out of the visits, however, and muted caution has been the general approach, with the United States absorbed by the last weeks of presidential campaigns and many in Europe waiting anxiously to see results from the November election.
Biden is expected on Friday to visit Germany, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz said they will have much to discuss. “We have to fathom how the war doesn’t continue forever,” Scholz said. “There will never be any decisions made over Ukraine’s head.”
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told reporters Wednesday that he is “very aware of all elements of the victory plan … and we are in close contact with allies and with Ukraine to see how we can take next steps.”
“It is my firm belief that one day Ukraine will be a member of NATO, and I will applaud when that day comes. It is up to the allies to discuss among themselves how to take it forward,” he said.
Zelensky’s public presentation of the plan came as Ukraine prepares for a difficult winter. For months, Russia pummeled Ukrainian energy infrastructure, causing widespread blackouts. The country is now preparing for more such power outages as temperatures plummet and the heating season begins.
Meanwhile, Russian forces are advancing on the eastern cities of Pokrovsk, where most civilians have evacuated, and Toretsk, where nonstop Russian attacks have leveled most of the city.
Ukrainian lawmaker Solomiia Bobrovska, a member of Holos, a liberal opposition party, said Zelensky’s plan showed what Ukraine’s allies need to do, but she expressed doubt about their reaction.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think the U.S. is very receptive of this plan,” she said, pointing to a sense of political paralysis ahead of the presidential election next month. “Biden could make a real historical decision with long-range weapons and the invitation.”
Lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko of the opposition European Solidarity party wrote on X that it wasn’t a plan so much as just Zelensky’s desires. “A plan needs to be realistic. Tell me, what in it is realistic?”
The partners do not appear poised to take the actions the president described, he added.
Roman Kostenko of Holos told The Washington Post that he expected Zelensky’s remarks to more specifically address Ukrainians “about their motivation and role in this plan.”
“Strategically correct things were voiced, and we need to move in that direction,” he said, adding that he cannot offer a full assessment until he has reviewed the classified material.
A senior NATO official said Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov will “shed some more light on the victory plan” at a dinner with NATO defense ministers on Thursday.
Kyiv is hoping for a decision before next summer over NATO membership, but it is unlikely to come with an outgoing U.S. administration, the official said, adding: “I won’t bet a bottle of wine” on a NATO invitation anytime soon. “A lot will depend on what the new American administration thinks about this, but I see that the field is shifting a bit, so there’s more serious talk.”
The official added that NATO membership is the main point of the plan because Zelensky knows it is the only way Ukraine can be safe, “which is also complicated because Putin has started this war to prevent that from happening.”
Ellen Francis in Brussels, Kate Brady in Berlin and Dan Lamothe in Washington contributed to this report.
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