Zelensky takes his ‘Victory Plan’ to Europe after Biden cancels trip

KYIV, Ukraine – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his “Victory Plan” to end the war with Russia were dealt a significant blow this week by an unexpected foe – Hurricane Milton.

A meeting of Kyiv’s allies, the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, scheduled for this weekend at Ramstein Air Base in Germany was postponed after President Joe Biden canceled his travel plans to stay in the United States as the Category 3 storm made landfall in Florida on Wednesday night. It’s unclear when the summit will now take place and whether the same senior delegations, including Biden, will attend.

For Ukraine, the timing of the postponement is a setback, as Zelenskyy has been rushing to drum up support for his plan ahead of the U.S. presidential election next month. In what appeared to be an effort to salvage the week, Zelenskyy instead embarked on a European tour to London, Paris, Berlin and Rome to pitch the details of his strategy. The plan includes NATO membership for Ukraine, permission to use Western missiles for deeper strikes on Russian territory and greater quantities of weapons.

Zelenskyy met Thursday with French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. He shared with each of them his Victory Plan, in which he proposes “decisive steps that will allow the war to end no later than 2025.”

The urgency is tied to the uncertainty of the upcoming U.S. elections. Ukrainian officials are particularly eyeing the last months of the year – after Election Day in November and before a new president takes office in January – as an opportunity to secure greater support from Biden.

Zelenskyy and his team have urged the outgoing American president to use his final months in office to cement his legacy as the leader who helped Ukraine against the Russians with new security commitments strengthening its position in any future negotiations to end the war.

“Weakness of any of our allies will inspire (Russian President Vladimir) Putin,” Zelenskyy said at a summit in Croatia on Wednesday. “That’s why we’re asking them to strengthen us, in terms of security guarantees, in terms of weapons, in terms of our future after this war. In my view, (Putin) only understands force.”

But the so far tepid reactions from some officials already briefed on Zelenskyy’s Victory Plan indicate that Kyiv may not get the kind of trump card that it was hoping for.

Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday that Zelenskyy’s Victory Plan lays out some things that Ukrainian officials “already have somewhat asked for,” and U.S. officials are reviewing the plan for “what’s really in the realm of possible.”

Brown, speaking to reporters in Keflavik, Iceland, said there is a difference of opinion among NATO allies about whether to admit Ukraine to the alliance. U.S. officials would also consult further with Ukraine on the specific numbers and types of munitions it has requested.

“We’re going to have to sit down with the Ukrainians and kind of work through what can you actually do versus what do you have on this list,” Brown said.

Starmer said at the start of his meeting with Zelenskyy that it was “very important we are able to show our continued commitment to support Ukraine.” He said their meeting was a chance to “go through the plan, to talk in more detail.”

Present at the meeting was Rutte, the new head of NATO, who afterward assured journalists that support for Ukraine was rock-solid and in the alliance’s core interests.

“Supporting Ukraine in the fight with Russia is crucial for our collective security,” he said. “If Putin gets his way in Ukraine, that would have serious security implications for all of us in NATO.”

There were no public announcements, however, about any of the elements in Zelenskyy’s plan. The Ukrainian president is scheduled to visit the German and Italian capitals on Friday.

Western diplomats in Kyiv have sensed that Zelenskyy has become more open to beginning negotiations with Russia, even as Moscow’s forces occupy more than 20 percent of Ukraine and are unlikely to cede any territory they currently control. For example, Zelenskyy has said that Russia will be invited to the next peace summit that Ukraine plans to organize, though when that will take place remains unclear.

Zelenskyy has touted the importance of ending the war on Ukraine’s terms, but its position has weakened over the past year as Russia has gained ground on the battlefield, particularly in the eastern Donetsk region.

Though Kyiv generated some new enthusiasm for its defense with a surprising summer cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, advances there have now stalled, too. Moreover, the operation didn’t lead to Russia diverting its forces from the front in eastern Ukraine as officials in Kyiv had hoped. Most recently, Ukraine was forced to withdraw its troops from the eastern coal town of Vuhledar, and analysts project more losses in the coming months.

Though public trust in Zelenskyy remains high, frustrations about the downward trajectory of the war have become more evident. And Ukrainians will have to pay more to fund the ongoing war effort. The country’s parliament on Thursday approved a tax hike on personal income for military expenditure, from 1.5 percent to 5 percent.

“We hear the word ‘Victory’ less and less, and ‘Negotiations’ more and more,” Oleh Sentsov, a prominent Ukrainian filmmaker who is serving in the military, wrote in a Facebook post this week.

“The Victory Plan is now Biden’s responsibility, and we wash our hands of it,” he continued. “The fortress city of Vuhledar turned out not to be such a strategic point after all, and we’ve already grown accustomed to losing a village every day.”

Volodymyr Fesenko, a Ukrainian political analyst, wrote in a Facebook post that the “traditional political and psychological flaw of Ukrainians – overly high expectations – has reemerged.”

“Expectations for the so-called Victory Plan were overheated, and then the same happened with the Ramstein meeting,” he said. “It’s important not to expect miracles.”—-

Serhiy Morgunov in Kyiv and Dan Lamothe in Keflavik, Iceland, contributed to this report.