“The implementation of our plan depends only on us and our partners,” Zelensky emphasized.
Volodymyr Zelensky on YES
The victory plan assumes the rapid strengthening of Ukraine, which will force Russia to negotiate. If the US does not support this plan, our country will continue to live according to plan “B”.
Vladimir Zelensky said this in an interview with The New Yorker.
He noted that he had previously said that “a strong Ukraine will force Putin to sit down at the negotiating table”.
“And now I have laid it all out on paper with specific arguments and specific steps to strengthen Ukraine in October, November and December and ensure a diplomatic end to the war. The difference this time will be that Putin understands the depth of this plan and the commitment of our partners to strengthening us, and he understands an important fact: if he is not ready to end this war in a fair and just way, but wants to continue trying to destroy us, then a strengthened Ukraine will not allow him to do so,” the head of state said.
Zelensky added that continuing to strengthen Ukraine “will significantly weaken Russia, which jeopardizes Putin's own position.”
If US leader Joe Biden rejects Kyiv's victory plan, Zelensky noted that “we have been living according to Plan B for years.” and Biden's refusal will mean a protracted war and many casualties.
“Plan A was proposed for a full-scale war, when we called for two things: preventive sanctions and preventive strengthening of Ukraine with various types of weapons. I told our partners: if Ukraine is very strong, nothing will happen. They did not listen,” Zelensky said.
He added that he is now proposing a “new Plan A” and that it means that Ukraine “changes its current course.”
“If you do not want this war to drag on, if you do not want Putin to bury us under the corpses of his people, taking even more Ukrainian lives in the process, we offer you a plan to strengthen Ukraine. This is not fantasy or science fiction, and importantly, it does not require the Russians to cooperate to succeed. In total, the plan sets out what our partners can do without Russia's participation,” the Ukrainian President added.
He added that “if diplomacy is the desire of both sides, then before diplomacy can be effective, the implementation of our plan depends only on us and our partners.”
As for Biden, Zelensky said that he “made a powerful, historic step when he decided to support us at the beginning of the war, an action that pushed our other partners to do the same.”