Rejection of Ukraine’s Victory Plan Will Lead to Prolonging Russia’s War, Says Zelenskyy

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the prospect of US President Joe Biden not backing Ukraine's Victory Plan as "a horrible thought," warning that it could prolong the war and increase casualties. 

This was stated by Zelenskyy during his interview with The New Yorker.

“If he doesn’t want to support it, I cannot force him,” Zelenskyy said. “If he refuses—well, then we must continue to live inside Plan B [the war]. And that’s unfortunate.”

The journalist, Joshua Yaffa, asked about, how the situation would look like if Biden does not support Ukraine’s Victory Plan.

“That’s a horrible thought. It would mean that Biden doesn’t want to end the war in any way that denies Russia a victory. And we would end up with a very long war—an impossible, exhausting situation that would kill a tremendous number of people,” Zelenskyy answered.

“Having said that, I can’t blame Biden for anything. At the end of the day, he took a powerful, historic step when he chose to support us at the start of the war, an action that pushed our other partners to do the same. We recognize Biden’s great achievement in this respect. That step of his already constituted a historic victory,” he added.

Zelenskyy emphasized that the goal of the Victory Plan is to quickly bolster Ukraine’s strength.

“A strong Ukraine will force Putin to the negotiating table. I’m convinced of that. It’s just that, before, I was only saying it and now I’ve put it all on paper, with specific arguments and specific steps to strengthen Ukraine during the months of October, November, and December, and to enable a diplomatic end of the war,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy is set to present his Victory Plan to Biden during a meeting in Washington, DC, on September 26. He also hopes to share the plan with presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.