Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s victory plan includes bringing Ukraine into NATO and replacing U.S. troops with battle-hardened Ukrainian troops at outposts throughout Europe.
Zelenskyy pitched the plan to the Ukrainian parliament Wednesday, seeking peace through greater help from Ukraine’s western allies.
His request includes an invitation to NATO, the international group formed as a way to counter Russia that President Vladimir Putin views as a threat to his nation’s existence.
Many believe Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022 due to the threat of an expanding NATO. Putin has long said he will not entertain peace talks until Ukraine ceases its bid to become a part of the NATO alliance.
If Ukraine is not allowed into NATO, it may begin to pursue nuclear weapons, according to Zelenskyy.
"In a conversation with Donald Trump, I told him it comes to this," Zelensky said in Ukrainian while speaking to the European Council in Brussels.
"The outcome is either Ukraine will be a nuclear power — and that will be our protection — or we should have some kind of alliance. Other than NATO, today we don’t know of any effective alliances."
He offered to have Ukraine take charge of European security and kicking out U.S. forces, thanks to its war-hardened military.
"If the partners agree, we envisage replacing certain military contingents of the U.S. armed forces stationed in Europe with Ukrainian units. After the war," Zelenskyy said. "Ukrainians have proven that they can be a force that Russian evil cannot overcome."
The U.S. has around 100,000 troops stationed across Europe.
In Ukraine, where manpower is in short supply, the average age of frontline soldiers is 43. The dire need for fresh recruits has led military recruitment officers to raid concert halls, bars and restaurants in search of 25- to 60-year-olds out of compliance with conscription into their forces.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte would not say whether he’d push member nations to extend Kyiv an invitation into NATO, though he reiterated that Russia does not have a say over who joins NATO.
"The victory plan is not only about an invitation to become a member of NATO. The victory plan has more elements," Rutte told reporters Wednesday. "The next steps [are] not just on this issue, but on the general content of the victory plan."
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He also once again called for an end to all restrictions on long-range weapons given to Ukraine so that the army could strike deep inside Russia, provide more training and air defense capability and prevent allies from shooting down drones and missiles over Ukrainian territory.
Zelenskyy's new plan comes as he continues to implore the European Union to release tens of billions in aid that has been held up for more than a year. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose nation has been blocking the transfer of $7.1 billion to Kyiv, called Zelenskyy's plan "more than frightening."
"We are losing this war, so the strategy is not working," Orbán wrote on Facebook. "But this does not mean that we need more war, more dangerous and long-range weapons — it means that we need to change from a war strategy to a peace strategy. We need a cease-fire and peace talks!"
Zelenskyy was in Washington last month making the pitch for unrestricted use of U.S. ATACMS and other long-range missiles to lawmakers, but the Biden administration has said it has no plan to lift the ban for fear of crossing the Kremlin’s red lines.
Zelenskyy argues Ukraine’s attacks on the Russian territory of Kursk prove that Putin is bluffing.
"Thanks to the Kursk operation, we saw that Putin doesn't have enough strength to hold his own when we push really hard," Zelenskyy said.
"If we start moving according to this victory plan now, it may be possible to end the war no later than next year," Zelenskyy told the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament. He is presenting the five-point plan to the European Council on Thursday.
Zelenskyy also said he’d asked leaders from the U.S., Germany, France and the U.K. for help with a non-nuclear strategic deterrence package that he said would force Moscow into a diplomatic process to end the war.
And he proposed partners from the European Union and U.S. sign a special agreement to purchase Ukraine’s critical resources, like lithium, gas, titanium and others, to shore up economic development.
Some Ukrainian politicians read the plan as an unrealistic wish list.
"A set of slogans and nothing more," European Solidarity opposition party MP Oleksiy Honcharenko said in a Facebook post. "The plan looks like others need to do everything for us."
Roman Losynskyi, a Ukrainian soldier and a member of the liberal Holos party, called the plan a "fantasy."
"On one hand, the plan sounds like a fantasy. On the other hand, Patriot, Storm Shadow, and F-16s used to be just as fantastic, as was the sinking of a large part of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation and the control of a piece of Kursk. Everything depends on the decisions of partners and the success of our diplomacy," Lozynskyi said.
However, he added that Zelenskyy "did not explain how he plans to achieve the implementation of these points."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the plan "ephemeral" and said, "Kyiv needs to sober up and admit its policies have no perspectives."
