Zelenskyy rules out ceding territories to Russia in 'Victory Plan', Kremlin says Kyiv needs to 'sober up'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday presented a long-awaited “Victory Plan” to parliament in which he ruled out ceding any of the country’s territory to Russia.

In a speech addressed to Ukraine’s lawmakers, Zelenskyy only revealed five main points of the plan, saying that the remaining three were secret.

Zelenskyy said the solution to end more than two years of war was not a frozen conflict, and “not a trade in Ukraine’s territory or sovereignty”.

Here is a quick look at five main points that Zelenskyy unveiled in Ukraine’s parliament:

Nato invite

Ukraine needs an unconditional invitation to join the NATO military alliance now, he said.

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“We understand that NATO membership is a matter of the future, not the present. But (Russian President Vladimir) Putin can see that his geopolitical calculations are headed for defeat,” Zelenskyy said.

Beef up Ukraine’s defence capabilities

He said Ukraine’s ability to defend itself had to be “irreversibly strengthened” and laid out a number of ways to do this.

They included further arming Ukraine and strengthening its defence industry, boosting air defence capabilities, removing restrictions on weapon use and a continuation of Ukrainian military operations on Russian soil.

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Deterrence

Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s western allies should deter Russia from any further aggression by showing Moscow that this would have consequences.

“Ukraine proposes to place on its soil a comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrence package that will be sufficient to protect Ukraine from any military threat from Russia,” he said.

He said there was also a secret addendum to this part of the plan, and did not go into further detail on what the proposed deterrence involved.

Strategic economic potential

Zelenskyy proposed that Ukraine sign an agreement with the US, EU and other unnamed allies that would allow for joint investments and use of Ukraine’s natural resources, which Zelenskiy said were worth trillions of dollars.

“These include, in particular, uranium, titanium, lithium, graphite and other strategically valuable resources that will strengthen either Russia and its allies or Ukraine and the democratic world in global competition,” he said.

Ukraine strengthening Nato

Zelenskyy proposed that after the war, Ukraine’s armed forces could be used to enhance the security of NATO, and replace some of the US forces currently stationed in Europe.

In his speech, Zelenskyy criticised China, Iran and North Korea for supporting Russia, calling them a “coalition of criminals”.

He said he would present the plan to European leaders at a summit Thursday.

Kremlin responds

Reacting to Zelenskyy’ speech, Kremlin said while it was too early to comment in detail on Zelenskyy’s “Victory Plan”,  Kyiv needed to “sober up” and realise the futility of the policies it was pursuing.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Ukrainian plan was probably a “camouflaged” US plan which he said was about using Kyiv to fight against Russia “until the last Ukrainian.”

“But there could be a different plan there, which could be really peaceful, which is for the Kyiv regime to realise the futility of the policies they are pursuing and to realise the need to sober up and realise the causes that led to this conflict,” Reuters quoted Peskov as saying.

Russia remains staunchly opposed to Ukraine joining NATO.

Washington, which has provided billions of dollars of arms and aid to Ukraine, has said it’s up to Kyiv how it deals with Russia.

With inputs from agencies