Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will present a “plan for victory” in the country’s war with Russia to President Joe Biden during this week’s visit to the US.
Zelensky also intends to present this program to Congress and the candidates for the US presidency: Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.
He is expected to step up efforts to persuade the US and its allies to allow Ukraine to fire missiles it has supplied deep into Russian territory for the first time in the war.
Zelensky’s visit to the US coincides with efforts from the White House to prepare a new $375m (£283m) military aid package for Ukraine.
This fall “will decide the future of this war,” Zelensky wrote in a post to X.
In a statement ahead of the visit, the Ukrainian leader previewed three elements in his plan: further arms donations, diplomatic efforts to force Russia to agree to peace, and holding Moscow accountable for its full-scale attack in 2022.
Ukraine has been urging the US, UK and other Western allies for months to ease restrictions on the use of long-range missiles so it can hit targets in Russia that Kyiv says are being used to launch attacks.
In early September, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West that he would consider the long-range missile attack a “direct participation” of the NATO military alliance in the war.
When asked by reporters on Sunday if he had made a decision to allow Ukraine to use US-made long-range weapons, Biden replied: “No.”
Trump has criticized US support for Ukraine and spoken highly of Putin, but said he would “probably” meet with Zelensky.
The former president previously signaled his plan to end the war “within 24 hours” if he is re-elected in November, but did not provide details.
According to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whom he met in March, Trump vowed that “he will not give a penny to the Ukraine-Russia war. That is why the war will end”.
Zelensky’s statement also expressed gratitude for the support from Ukraine’s partners so far, singling out the US in particular as its “leading supporter”.
The US has been the largest foreign donor to Ukraine, and has so far provided $56bn for defence.
After arriving in the US on Sunday, Zelensky stopped in Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to visit a weapons factory involved in supplying the war in Ukraine.
After Washington, Zelensky is expected to head to New York and the United Nations for a scheduled meeting of the Security Council on Tuesday and a speech to the General Assembly on Wednesday.
Source link
