16/10/2024–|Last updated: 10/16/202409:45 PM (Mecca time)
The Ukrainian president revealed Volodymyr ZelenskyOn Wednesday, he announced the long-awaited “victory plan” to end the war with Russia, refusing to cede any territory, and calling for intensified Western support, including an invitation to join NATO (NATO), as he hurried Kremlin to downplay the plan's importance, describing it as a “transient peace plan.”
In a speech before Parliament in Kiev on Wednesday, Zelensky ruled out the possibility of Ukraine giving up part of its territory in exchange for achieving peace, and rejected any freeze on the conflict.
He said in his speech to the deputies where he raised the flags of Ukraine andEuropean Union “Russia must lose the war against Ukraine… This does not mean freezing the fighting or any exchange of Ukraine's territory or sovereignty.”
He pointed out that the priority in the 5-point “Victory Plan” is better integration with NATO. He said, “The first point is in a call to NATO now,” noting that Moscow has been undermining Europe's security for decades, given that Kiev is not a party to the military alliance.
The Ukrainian president also called on his country's Western allies to lift restrictions on Ukraine's use of long-range weapons, so that Kiev can target Russian military sites deep inside Russia and inside Ukrainian territory, which has fallen under Moscow's control.
Russian advance
In this regard, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte announced that the “Victory Plan” will be discussed at the NATO Defense Ministers' Summit, which begins tomorrow, Thursday in Brussels, and lasts for two days.
“There is no doubt that it will be on the table this week,” Rutte said, adding that it was “clear” that the allies were discussing the plan, which calls for increased Western support, including inviting Ukraine to join NATO.
For his part, he hurried Kremlin To downplay the importance of Zelensky's plan, calling it a “transient peace plan.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “The only peace plan included is for the Kiev regime to realize the futility of the policy it is following and understand that it must wake up.”
In turn, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Zelensky's plan means “trouble for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.”
Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Zelensky “is pushing NATO countries into direct conflict with our country,” adding, “It is certainly not a plan. It is a set of incoherent slogans… issued by a neo-Nazi killer.”
During Zelensky's speech, the Russian army announced that its forces had taken control of two other villages in eastern Ukraine, where they were advancing steadily.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated, in a statement, that the villages of Nevsky and Krasny Yar had been “liberated,” while it published a video showing destroyed buildings in Nevsky, where Russian flags were raised.
After confronting Russian forces at the beginning of the war in February 2022, Kiev is facing increasing pressure to find a way out after its forces suffered field losses, and at a time when Moscow is intensifying its strikes on its infrastructure.
Russia has controlled nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory since the war began, and cities and towns have turned into rubble, while thousands of civilians have been killed.
Russia has demanded that Kiev give up the territory it already controls in eastern and southern Ukraine as a condition for peace talks.