President Volodymyr Zelenskyy unveiled his much anticipated “victory plan” at Ukraine’s parliament on Wednesday, urging his war-weary country to stay united at a precarious time ahead of its key U.S. ally’s Nov. 5 presidential election.
As Russian troops advance in the east and a bleak winter of power shortages looms, he told lawmakers his plan contained five main points that relied on Kyiv’s allies, including an unconditional invite to join NATO and specific weapons support.
“Together with our partners, we must change the circumstances so that the war ends. Regardless of what [Russian President Vladimir] Putin wants. We must all change the circumstances so that Russia is forced to peace,” he told lawmakers and top officials.
Zelenskyy emphasized the need for Ukraine to acquire a non-nuclear deterrence capacity that he said would be enough to destroy Russian military power. He did not elaborate, but said there was an additional secret addendum that he could not disclose.
Zelenskyy proposed that Ukraine sign an agreement with the U.S., EU and other unnamed allies that would allow for joint investments and use of Ukraine’s natural resources, worth trillions, he said.
“These include, in particular, uranium, titanium, lithium, graphite and other strategically valuable resources that will strengthen either Russia and its allies or Ukraine and the democratic world in global competition,” he said.
‘Very unrealistic’
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, who sits as an independent in parliament, said the plan looked “very unrealistic.”
“We put almost everything on our partners. And what demands do we make of ourselves?” he said.
Roman Lozynskyi, a lawmaker for Zelenskyy’s party, said it looked “fantastical” but that such past requests — such as for F-16s or British Storm Shadow missiles — had once seemed unrealistic but nonetheless yielded results.
Zelenskyy’s speech sought to persuade the exhausted public that the war can be ended soon and to emphasize 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.
The Kremlin said it was too early to comment in detail on Zelenskyy’s plan, but that Kyiv needed to “sober up” and realize the futility of the policies it was pursuing.
U.S. election a question mark
After two-and-a-half years of war, the speech sought to persuade Ukraine’s exhausted public that the war can be ended soon and to emphasize 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.
Ukraine faces both difficulties and uncertainty ahead of the U.S. election that could return Donald Trump to the White House.
The Republican former president has pledged to rapidly end the war before entering office if he wins, an idea that Kyiv’s supporters fear would involve big concessions in the name of a quick deal.
Zelenskyy met U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington at the end of the September to present the plan. In a subsequent whirlwind tour of Europe, the Ukrainian leader met with leaders of Britain, France, Italy and Germany to discuss it.
Zelenskyy said he would travel to the summit of European Union leaders in Brussels on Thursday to present his plan.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is at the White House to promote his victory plan. His visit comes as U.S. President Joe Biden announces billions of dollars in new assistance for Kyiv.
Russia, Ukraine dispute states of eastern villages
In the war on Wednesday, Russia launched one of its largest drone salvos at Ukraine in recent months, targeting Kyiv and other cities and igniting a fire at an industrial facility in the western region of Ternopil, according to Ukraine officials.
Air defences shot down 51 of 136 drones used in the attack, Ukraine’s air force said in its readout. Twenty drones were still in the air and 60 were unaccounted for, possibly after being intercepted by electronic warfare systems, it said.
Almost 50 firefighters put out a “large-scale fire” in the Ternopil region, the military administration wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“There were no injuries,” it said, declining to name the affected facility.
A former Canadian soldier, identified only as ‘Shadow,’ describes being seriously wounded while fighting with Ukraine in the heavily contested region of Donetsk. He reconnects with CBC’s David Common two years after they first spoke to explain what happened and why he’s eager to return to the frontline.
The air force said Russia also fired two missiles at the northern Chernihiv and eastern Donetsk regions, but did say what happened to them. There was no immediate comment from Russia on its latest strike.
The drone attack caused a fire at a private residence in the region outside the capital and damaged several other buildings, according to governor Ruslan Kravchenko.
The region was under air alert for more than 12 hours because of the attack.
Kravchenko said there were no casualties.
All the drones that targeted Kyiv overnight were destroyed and there were no reports of damage or injuries, Serhiy Popko, the city military administration’s chief, said.
Russian strikes have pounded Ukraine’s power facilities this year and long blackouts and other outages are almost certain to make the looming winter difficult for ordinary Ukrainians far from the front line where Russian troops have been advancing.
The governors of the southern Kherson and Mykolaiv regions reported power cuts on Wednesday, with the energy authorities in Mykolaiv region saying 272,000 consumers had been affected.
On the ground, Russian state-run news agency TASS cited the Russian Defence Ministry in reporting that Russian forces captured two villages in eastern Ukraine — Krasnyi Yar in Donetsk region and Nevske in Luhansk region, as saying on Wednesday.
The Ukrainian military said it had repelled Russian attacks near Krasnyi Yar on the Pokrovsk front over the past day and that Russian forces had attempted to break through Ukraine’s defences around Nevske on the Lyman front, according to a morning readout it posted on the Telegram messaging app.
