Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented his victory plan for the war in Ukraine to French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, during his trips to both France and Italy on October 10.
Zelensky commented on his country’s relationship with both France and Italy: “We deeply appreciate France’s leadership on this path, and we agreed at the team level to continue working on filling out our next steps”, said Zelensky while visiting President Macron in France.
He also spoke about his relationship with Giorgia Meloni, saying, “I especially want to thank you for the security assistance provided to our country – first of all, air defense systems that save lives in our cities and villages.”
Zelensky presented his victory plan to the Ukrainian parliament
Zelensky spent most of the last month traveling and meeting with Ukraine’s closest allies. Meloni and Macron were one of the last leaders he met, having previously met and presented the plan to Joe Biden, and presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
After doing so, Zelensky presented the victory plan to the Ukrainian parliament. The plan would provisionally put an end to the war next year, with some elements of the plan including a formal invitation to join NATO, lifting bans on long-range strikes, and a refusal to give up any territories.
A Kremlin spokesman already set the tone for Russia’s response saying that Kyiv needs to “sober up”.
Zelensky called Russia, China Iran and North Korea a coalition of criminals
During his speech at the Ukrainian parliament, Zelensky called these countries a coalition of criminals for backing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He also said that Vladimir Putin had “gone mad” as he was now bent on waging wars.
Zelensky’s victory plan for Ukraine has five key points. The first one, and one of the main reasons Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, is Ukraine being invited to join NATO. This will prove to be perhaps the most challenging point to accomplish but has been one of Ukraine’s long-term foreign policy goals.
The second key point of Ukraine’s victory plan consists of strengthening the country’s defenses. This would include permission of Ukraine’s allies to use long-range weapons against Russia and the permission for Ukraine’s military operations to continue on Russian territory avoiding the creation of buffering zones.
Zelensky’s remaining points include containing Russia through non-nuclear deterrence deployment on Ukrainian soil, which is essentially top military equipment, joint protection by the U.S. and the E.U., and for the post-war period, changing U.S. troops in Europe with Ukrainian ones.
The president also added that there are three additional points that are a secret and would only be shared with allies.
