Kyiv, Ukraine – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday arrived in the United States for a crucial visit to present Kyiv’s plan to end two and a half years of war with Russia.
Zelensky will present his proposals — which he calls a “victory plan” — to President Joe Biden, as well as presidential hopefuls Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
The visit comes after a summer of intense fighting: with Moscow advancing fast in eastern Ukraine and Kyiv holding on to swathes of Russia’s Kursk region.
It also comes as Kyiv has for weeks pressed the West to allow it to use delivered long-range weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia — so far to no avail.
Zelensky is expected to try to convince Biden to change his mind.
“We have arrived in the United States of America,” Zelensky said on social media.
“The plan for Ukraine’s victory will be on the table for all our allies.”
He said he was starting the trip in Pennsylvania for a “special visit” — without giving details — before travelling to New York and Washington.
Zelensky said the coming weeks would decide how more than 30 months of fighting that has killed thousands would end, calling on world leaders to think of their legacies.
“It is now being determined what the legacy of the current generation of states leaders will be. Those in the highest offices,” he said.
In comments before his trip, Zelensky said the United States and UK have not given Ukraine permission to use the long-range weapons as they fear escalation, but hinted he had not given up hope Biden would make a U-turn.
“We have had some decisions in the history of our relationship with Biden — very interesting and difficult dialogues,” Zelensky said earlier this week, adding: “He later changed his point of view.”
Moscow has said it considers such a go-ahead as NATO countries being “at war” with Russia.
– ‘Fair and stable peace’ –
A close adviser to Biden said this month that the US leader would use his remaining time in office to “put Ukraine in the best possible position to prevail.”
No details on Ukraine’s plan to end the fighting have been made public.
Zelensky said Biden would be the first foreign leader to see the plan “in full” — saying it will then also be presented to “all leaders of our partner countries”.
Zelensky plans to present the proposals to the US Congress, Harris and Trump.
Harris has indicated she would continue Biden’s policies on Ukraine, while Trump has been hugely critical of Washington’s massive aid packages for Kyiv.
Zelensky said earlier this week that Ukraine needs a “fair and stable peace” and that the plan envisages that “war will not return to us again in an even bigger wave” in years to come.
He has said Kyiv plans to hold meetings throughout autumn and that the “entire plan” will be ready by “early November”.
The proposals, he told the media Friday, envisage “quick and concrete steps by our strategic partners”.
– ‘Clear place for Ukraine’ –
One of those steps, he said, is “related to strengthening Ukraine’s weapons capabilities” while another demands a “clear place for Ukraine in the world’s security architecture”.
Zelensky has also said he plans to invite Russia to a possible second international peace summit in November “because it is Russia that is fighting Ukraine”, saying “all” of Ukraine’s allies said Moscow should be invited.
But Moscow this weekend said it would not attend and referred to President Vladimir Putin’s conditions to enter talks: that Ukraine surrender four of its regions.
“I think both are still betting on the possibility of a military victory,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told CNN Sunday, saying he does not see a real interest in talks.
Efforts for a push towards peace negotiations have so far failed.
Zelensky heads to Kyiv as Russian attacks on Ukraine killed six people — including two children — this weekend, while a strike on the city of Kharkiv wounded 21 people in a residential neighbourhood.
He also flies a day after Ukraine said it struck two arms depots in Russia, with Kyiv’s army saying it hit a key ammunition storage base important to the Russian army’s logistics for its invasion.
