Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rules out ceding territory with new war plan

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented his “victory plan” to lawmakers, outlining his vision for ending Russia’s invasion and reiterating that the country could not accept a frozen conflict or trade territories for peace. 

The Ukrainian leader was back in Kyiv after completing a tour of European capitals to rally support for his blueprint, while also warning allies against showing weakness to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also briefed US President Joe Biden last month, though the proposal received a lukewarm reception at the time. 

Addressing a session of Ukraine’s Parliament on Wednesday attended by foreign diplomats and military officials, Zelenskyy said that the plan is designed to force Russia to accept either a “fair diplomatic process” or lose its ability to continue waging war on Ukraine.

Kyiv is open to negotiations, a word the president said he often hears from Ukraine’s partners, but they needed to involve “fairness” — a word he said he hears much less.

Zelenskyy announced the plan back in August as pressure from allies started to mount for a more concrete outline on ending the war. He’s reiterated that a ceasefire isn’t on the table for negotiations, despite Ukraine’s army being faced with lack of ammunition as Russian troops continue advancing in the east.  

An unconditional invitation for Ukraine to join NATO is the first point of the plan. “We understand that NATO’s membership is a question of future, not nowadays,” Zelenskyy told the lawmakers. “But Putin must see that his geopolitical calculations are losing.”

He also reiterated Ukraine’s long-standing demands to conduct long-range strikes of western-made weapons systems in Russian territory and also asked partners to provide live satellite data.

The president said that the victory plan contains some classified addenda concerning plans in military, defense and economy, which were shared with strategic partners like United States, the United Kingdom France, Germany and Italy. He did not provide further details about these clauses.

One of the classified clauses, said the president, is the fate of trillions of dollars’ worth of Ukraine’s natural resources, such as uranium and titanium. These “strategically valuable” resources “will strengthen either Russia and its allies or Ukraine and the democratic world,” he said.

The deterrence section of the victory plan contains a proposal “to deploy a comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrence package on its soil” to protect Ukraine from any military threat from Russia and to narrow down Russia’s options to either choose diplomacy or “lose its ability to continue the aggressive war.”

Ukraine’s army, which Zelenskyy said will be one of the most experienced after the war, could in future shoulder the burden of defending Europe and replace US troops, said the president.

Zelenskyy’s team has consistently said that the “victory plan” is not an alternative to the so-called peace formula initiative for future peace talks, but a bridge to a second meeting of leaders that Kyiv is seeking by the end of this year.