Kiev.-Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Tuesday that he plans to present a plan to end the war to US President Joe Biden in September, which he will also present to the two candidates to replace Biden in the White House, Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.
“I think I will be able to present this plan to President Biden in September,” Zelensky said at a press conference with dozens of journalists in kyiv.
The Ukrainian head of state added that he will also hand over the document to Harris and Trump, as Ukraine will need Washington’s support even after the US presidential election in November.
“The main point of this plan is to force Russia to end the war. And that is something I fervently hope for: that it will be fair for Ukraine,” he said in relation to the war that was started by Russia’s large-scale invasion in February 2022.
Zelensky explained, without giving further details, that the operation that Ukraine is carrying out in the Russian region of Kursk, where Ukrainian forces occupy a part of the territory, is part of that plan.
The Ukrainian head of state said that the objective of taking Kursk – where kyiv controls a hundred towns and almost 1,300 square kilometres – is not an occupation but a defensive operation to “prevent (the Russians) from taking more” Ukrainian territory.
The Ukrainian president has repeatedly insisted since Ukraine began its invasion of Kursk on August 6 that kyiv has no intention of seizing foreign territories. On the contrary, he has declared that the offensive is aimed at preventing Russian cross-border attacks on his Sumy region and forcing Russia to come to the negotiating table “on our own terms.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on August 19 that talks were off the table following the cross-border incursion in Kursk.
Zekensky’s proposal also includes economic proposals, as well as proposals on the role Ukraine should play in the international security architecture and steps that should be taken to get Russia to agree to end the war.
Zelensky said he hopes to go to the United States in September to attend the UN General Assembly in New York and is preparing to meet with Biden.
His remarks indicated that he sees the main potential forum for talks as a follow-up international peace summit, at which Ukraine has said it wants Russia to have representatives.
The first summit to promote kyiv’s vision for peace, held in Switzerland in June, expressly excluded Russia, though it attracted dozens of delegations – but not China, the world’s second-largest economy, despite kyiv’s efforts to win over the global South.
Asked later about the possibility of Ukraine giving up territories in any eventual negotiations, Zelensky replied that Ukrainians “are not ready” for that option, although he acknowledged that the decision will depend on the position of kyiv’s allies.
In this regard, the Ukrainian head of state stressed the importance of decisions such as sending F-16 aircraft to Ukraine and revealed that his army had deployed the aircraft supplied by the West to counter Russia’s recent large-scale attacks with drones and missiles.
“We have already destroyed some missiles and drones using the F-16s,” he said without giving further details.
The president also announced that his army had recently carried out the first successful test of a domestically produced ballistic missile.Infobae.
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2024-08-30 01:24:13
