Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presents his plan for victory over Russia to lawmakers in the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv, 16 October 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE/ Ukrainian Presidential Press Service
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has presented his long-awaited five-point plan for victory in the war against Russia to members of Ukraine’s legislature, the Verkhovna Rada, independent Ukrainian news outlet RBC-Ukraine reported on Wednesday.
Zelensky stressed that the implementation of the plan had to begin now in order to bring the war to an end next year, adding that whether or not the plan could be realised was dependent on Ukraine’s partners rather than on Russia.
An invitation for Ukraine to join NATO was the first point of Zelensky’s plan. Ukraine submitted an “accelerated” application for NATO membership in September 2022, but the war has stalled the process, and Zelensky accused Russia of exploiting the geopolitical uncertainty that arose from Ukraine not being a NATO member.
“We understand that NATO membership is a matter for the future, not the present,” Zelensky said, before adding that NATO membership would prove to Putin that his “geopolitical calculations” were flawed.
The second part of the plan stresses the importance of strengthening Ukraine’s defences and allowing the Ukrainian military to use Western-supplied long-range weapons to strike deep inside Russian territory “so that Russians really feel what war is and, despite Russian propaganda, begin to direct their hatred towards the Kremlin,” Zelensky said.
The third point proposes deploying non-nuclear deterrents in the country to safeguard Ukraine from potential Russian aggression in the future. Zelensky noted that one part of the third point would remain classified due to the topic’s sensitivity, though he said it had been revealed to the leaders of the US, the UK, France, Italy and Germany.
“The Russian leadership acts aggressively only when it is convinced that it will not receive an adequate destructive response. When Russia knows that there will be a response and understands what kind of response it will be, they will choose negotiations and stable coexistence even with their strategic opponents,” Zelensky said.
The fourth point, part of which was also classified, refers to the protection of Ukraine’s natural resources, including uranium, titanium, and lithium, all of which are key to the country’s economic growth.
The fifth and final point of Zelensky’s plan laid out his vision for Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction and, noting that after the war Ukraine would have one of the largest and most experienced militaries in the world, suggested that it should be used to strengthen NATO security in Europe.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has branded Zelensky’s peace plan “ephemeral” during a conference call with pro-Kremlin reporters on Wednesday. “Most likely, this is the same plan that the Americans had to fight us to the last Ukrainian, which Zelensky has now camouflaged and called a peace plan,” Peskov said.
Peskov added that the “a truly peaceful plan” would include “the Kiev regime realising the futility of the policy they are pursuing” and understanding “what caused this conflict”.
