More than a week has passed since Vladimir Zelensky presented his “victory plan” in the United States, but the details of the strategy, as well as how it was received in Washington, are still unknown, writes The Washington Post.
The newspaper notes that Zelensky’s trip to the United States did not provoke the reaction that Ukraine was counting on, and the president joe biden did not lift restrictions on the use of long-range weapons in kyiv. However, next week the Ukrainian president will have another opportunity to present Biden with a “plan for victory,” at a meeting of the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group at the Ramstein base in Germany.
According to an anonymous diplomat from one of the Western countries, Ukraine can count on other help at this meeting. In particular, the interlocutor said, NATO countries are considering the possibility of offering kyiv “more concrete steps” for future membership in the alliance, although these measures will probably not be as urgent as the Ukrainian side would like. The Financial Times also reported that Biden could agree to move forward on the issue of Ukraine’s future membership in NATO.
According to WP, the problem for Ukrainian officials is that the upcoming US presidential election calls into question future security assistance to Ukraine. Zelensky’s team has tried to persuade Biden to support a “victory plan” before his term ends, but the White House is unlikely to take unpopular steps so as not to jeopardize the Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign. Kamala Harris.
Zelensky’s “victory plan” has not been made public in its entirety. According to the Financial Times, in addition to an invitation to NATO, it includes the supply of “enormous quantities” of Western weapons to Ukraine.
Kyiv has called for accelerated NATO membership in September 2022. The main communiqué from the alliance’s June summit in Washington states that “Ukraine’s future lies in NATO,” the country is increasingly integrating politically with the bloc, but an official invitation will only be sent to kyiv when “the allies agree and the necessary conditions are all met.”
Russian authorities see the expansion of NATO’s military infrastructure in Europe as a threat to the country’s security and demand that Ukraine abandon its desire to join the bloc. In the summer, the president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin proposed conditions for the cessation of hostilities, which, in addition to the clause on the neutral, non-aligned and nuclear-free status of Ukraine, include the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the territory of the regions of the DPR, the LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson. Ukraine called them an ultimatum, RBC recalls.
