Zelensky unveils ‘Victory Plan’ to Ukrainian parliament

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday ruled out ceding any of the country´s territory to Russia while presenting a long-awaited “Victory Plan” to parliament.

In a speech laying out his five-point plan to MPs, Zelensky said the solution to end more than two years of war was not a frozen conflict, and “not a trade in Ukraine´s territory or sovereignty”.

He also urged Western allies to extend an “invitation to join Nato now”, claiming that Moscow had been undermining European security because Kyiv is not a member of the US-led defence alliance.

Zelensky reiterated calls for the West to lift restrictions on Ukraine´s use of long-range arms on military targets deep in Russian territory.

In addition, he asked for help in “equipping our reserve brigades”. Ukraine proposes “to deploy a comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrence package on its territory” that would be “sufficient to protect Ukraine from any military threat from Russia,” Zelensky said.

After the war, the president said he envisaged “replacing certain military contingents of the US Armed Forces stationed in Europe with Ukrainian units”.

In his speech, Zelensky criticised China, Iran and North Korea for supporting Russia, calling them a “coalition of criminals”.Zelensky, who has unrelentingly called for a “fair” end to the war, says his plan is needed to force the Kremlin to negotiate in good faith, though he appeared to acknowledge in his speech that some allies see the war’s end game differently.

“We hear the word ‘negotiations’ from partners and the word ‘justice’ much less often. Ukraine is open to diplomacy, but honest (diplomacy),” he said.

His plan proposed establishing a “comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrence package” inside Ukraine to protect against threats from Russia and to destroy its military power. He did not elaborate, but said there was an additional secret addendum that he could not disclose.

The plan, he added, also envisaged a Western role investing in and jointly protecting Ukraine’s natural mineral resources from Russian attacks as well as post-war reconstruction pledges.

He said he would present the plan to European leaders at a summit on Thursday.

He already met US President Joe Biden in Washington at the end of the September to discuss it. In a subsequent whirlwind tour of Europe, he met the leaders of Britain, France, Italy and Germany and outlined his plan.

The speech was attended by his top military, intelligence and political brass as well as lawmakers, some of whom occasionally stood up to applaud, although it was panned by some lawmakers.

Oleksii Honcharenko said the plan looked “very unrealistic”: “We put almost everything on our partners. And what demands do we make of ourselves?”

Roman Lozynskyi, a lawmaker for Zelensky’s party, said it looked “fantastical” but that such past requests - such as for F-16s or Storm Shadow missiles - had once seemed unrealistic but nonetheless yielded results.

Zelensky’s speech sought to persuade the exhausted public that the war can be ended soon and to emphasise the importance of ordinary Ukrainians remaining united as war challenges pile up.

“We achieved and are achieving results in battles thanks to our unity. Therefore, please do not lose unity,” he said.