Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday arrived in the US for a crucial visit to present Kyiv’s plan to end two-and-a-half years of war with Russia.
Zelenskiy was to present his proposals — which he calls a “victory plan” — to US President Joe Biden, as well as presidential hopefuls US Vice President Kamala Harris and former US president Donald Trump.
The visit comes after a summer of intense fighting, with Moscow advancing fast in eastern Ukraine and Kyiv holding on to swathes of Russia’s Kursk region.
Photo: Commonwealth Media Services via Reuters
It also comes as Kyiv has for weeks pressed the West to allow it to use long-range weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia — so far to no avail.
When they meet at the White House on Thursday, Zelenskiy is expected to try to convince Biden to change his mind.
On the first leg of his US visit, Zelenskiy visited a factory in Pennsylvania that produces badly needed 155mm artillery shells.
“I began my visit to the United States by expressing my gratitude to all the employees at the plant,” Zelenskiy wrote on Sunday on social media.
The post included photographs of him shaking hands with workers at the plant, where he said production had been ramped up.
“It is in places like this where you can truly feel that the democratic world can prevail,” he wrote.
He was next due to travel to New York and Washington.
Zelenskiy said the coming weeks would decide how more than 30 months of fighting that has killed thousands would end.
“It is now being determined what the legacy of the current generation of states leaders will be. Those in the highest offices,” he said.
In comments before his trip, Zelenskiy said that the US and UK have not given Ukraine permission to use the long-range weapons as they fear escalation, but hinted he had not given up hope.
“We have had some decisions in the history of our relationship with Biden — very interesting and difficult dialogues,” Zelenskiy said. “He later changed his point of view.”
Moscow has said it considers such a go-ahead as NATO nations being “at war” with Russia.
A close adviser to Biden earlier this month said that the US leader would use his remaining time in office to “put Ukraine in the best possible position to prevail.”
No details on Ukraine’s plan have been made public.
Zelenskiy said that Biden would be the first foreign leader to see the plan “in full” — saying it would then also be presented to “all leaders of our partner countries.”
Zelenskiy plans to present the proposals to the US Congress, Harris and Trump. The White House has said he would meet with Democratic presidential candidate Harris separately from Biden, and Zelenskiy has said he expects to meet with Republican candidate Trump on Thursday or Friday.
Harris has indicated she would continue Biden’s policies on Ukraine, while Trump has been hugely critical of Washington’s massive aid packages for Kyiv.
Zelenskiy earlier this week said that the plan envisages “war will not return to us again in an even bigger wave” in years to come. He has said Kyiv plans to hold meetings throughout autumn and that the “entire plan” would be ready by “early November.”
The proposals envisage “quick and concrete steps by our strategic partners,” he said.
One of those steps is “related to strengthening Ukraine’s weapons capabilities,” while another demands a “clear place for Ukraine in the world’s security architecture,” he added.
Zelenskiy also said that he plans to invite Russia to a possible second international peace summit in November, but Moscow at the weekend said that it would not attend and referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s conditions to enter talks — that Ukraine surrender four of its regions.
“I think both are still betting on the possibility of a military victory,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told CNN on Sunday.
Russian attacks on Ukraine at the weekend killed six people — including two children — while a strike on the city of Kharkiv wounded 21 people in a residential neighborhood.
Ukraine said it struck two arms depots in Russia, with Kyiv’s army saying it hit a key ammunition storage base important to the Russian army’s logistics for its invasion.
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