This week, President of Ukraine V. Zelensky presented his so-called Victory Plan in the Ukrainian Parliament and in the European Union.
Below I cite the opinion of Western media about this plan.
The Washington Post
CNN
The New York Times
The picture above is taken from the thread Nazi insignia on Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk region.
The Ukrainian president pitched his plan for ending the war with Russia, but many European and NATO leaders approached it with caution.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tried to drum up support for his “victory plan” at NATO on Thursday, but a key part of it, an invitation to join the military alliance, appeared elusive.
Ahead of Zelensky’s arrival, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith told reporters Wednesday that NATO was “not at the point right now where the alliance is talking about issuing an invitation in the short term.”
Zelensky has visited the United States and toured European capitals in recent weeks to get their endorsement for the victory plan, but the flurry of trips has elicited muted public declarations of support and made little apparent progress.
Trump has repeatedly suggested Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine would not have happened if he had still been president. In comments in a podcast interview published Thursday, Trump blamed Zelensky, saying he “should never have let that war start.”
And the outcome of Ukraine’s gamble to invade Russia’s Kursk region remains unclear, as Russian forces are counterattacking.
CNN
At the heart of Zelensky’s plan is Ukraine’s desire for an invitation to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which would be a precursor to full NATO membership, but something that Ukraine’s allies have been cool…
In the lead-up to his public announcement this week, Zelensky discussed the peace plan with leaders in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany and the head of NATO – a tour that ended without any countries publicly supporting the plan.
The proposals (of Zelensky) come as Ukraine is facing setbacks on the eastern frontline…
On Wednesday, Zelensky also called for “joint defense operations with our neighbors in Europe to shoot down Russian missiles and drones within the range of our partners’ air shield.” However, then-NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg poured cold water on that idea in July, saying the bloc would not become part of the conflict.
The plan also includes a new proposal for deploying a “comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrence package on its soil that will be sufficient to protect Ukraine from any military threat from Russia,”…
He (Zelensky) did not give further details about what a non-nuclear deterrent would look like in practice, though.
The New York Times
The president’s address to Parliament, his first so far this year, was seen by many Ukrainians as an attempt to sell his message at home and reassure a nation where war fatigue is on the rise amid steady Russian advances.
In recent weeks, Russian forces have been closing in on the northeastern city of Kupiansk, prompting the Ukrainian authorities there to order a mandatory evacuation on Tuesday.
More than two years into the fighting and faced with steady Russian advances, war fatigue in Ukraine has risen. And sentiment in some cases has shifted from an unwavering resolve for total and outright victory to a more conciliatory stance.
A poll conducted in May by the National Democratic Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit group, and shared by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that 57 percent of Ukrainians believe that Kyiv should engage in peace negotiations with Moscow.
But opposition lawmakers were quick to express skepticism after the address (of Zelensky). Oleksiy Honcharenko, a member of European Solidarity, the party of Mr. Zelensky’s chief rival, called the plan “very unrealistic.” He noted that it depended heavily on Western assistance yet did not outline what Ukraine could do on its own to improve the situation.
“According to the plan, it seems that someone has to do everything for us,” Mr. Honcharenko wrote on social media.
The picture above is taken from the thread Nazi insignia on Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk region.