Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrives in Pennsylvania, USA, 22 September 2024. Photo: President of Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in the US on Sunday afternoon for a series of key meetings in which he will present his long-awaited “victory plan” to Ukraine’s allies over the coming days.
In his evening video address to Ukrainians on Sunday, Zelensky said that he would begin his trip by presenting his plan for Kyiv’s victory against Russia to US President Joe Biden, who would be the “first to see it in full”.
Over the coming days, the plan is also to be shared with Western leaders, as well as presented to the US Congress and to presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, ahead of an autumn that Zelensky said would “determine the future” of the war.
Upon his arrival in the US on Sunday, Zelensky’s first port of call was a Pennsylvania munitions factory where 155mm artillery shells used by Ukraine’s military are produced, and where he thanked staff for having helped Ukraine “withstand Putin’s onslaught” and for saving the lives of “millions of Ukrainians”.
“It is in places like this where you can truly feel that the democratic world can prevail”, Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian president is scheduled to attend a UN Security Council meeting in New York on Tuesday and address this week’s General Assembly on Wednesday before continuing to Washington for further meetings.
Hinting at the content of the five-point plan on Sunday, Zelensky said it would cover “weapons to defend our independence and our people, diplomacy to consolidate our partners and force Russia into peace, and justice so that Russia is held accountable for this war and feels its consequences”.
On Tuesday, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told journalists that White House officials had already seen Zelensky’s peace plan, commenting that it “lays out a strategy and a plan that can work”.
