Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the coming months will be “decisive” in the war with Russia as he arrived in the United States to try to secure its support for a “victory plan” that he hopes will force the Kremlin to negotiate a fair peace.
“We don’t have much time. The next few months will be decisive...We are short of time to define what the outcome will be. And we must define it. Not Russia, not their bloody allies,” Mr Zelenskiy said in New York, where he will address the United Nations General Assembly.
“We need to be faster. We need not to lose the next few months in war so that we don’t lose the next decades. Ukraine has a plan for victory. And I will present this plan to America – to President (Joe) Biden, to the Congress and to both presidential candidates – Kamala Harris and Donald Trump – and all our global allies.”
Mr Zelenskiy has not revealed details of his plan, but Kyiv wants US permission to use western-supplied missiles to strike military targets deeper inside Russia, to degrade its supply lines and disrupt daily air strikes on Ukrainian cities, critical infrastructure and front-line positions.
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He said Ukraine needed “weapons to defend our independence and our people. Diplomacy to consolidate partners and force Russia into peace. And justice so that Russia is held accountable for this war and feels its consequences.”
Russia says it will not attend a so-called peace summit that Mr Zelenskiy intends to call this year, and insists it will only negotiate if Kyiv accepts its occupation of about one fifth of Ukrainian territory, including land that the Kremlin’s troops do not control.
Moscow’s military is grinding forward in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, while struggling to drive Ukrainian forces out of the Russian frontier region of Kursk.
Kursk officials said on Monday that more than 6,000 residents were evacuated from border areas over the last week, and more than 130,000 have fled their homes since Ukrainian troops launched a surprise attack in early August.
Russia’s foreign ministry accused Ukrainian forces of holding up to 120 people against their will in the occupied town of Sudzha and said at least 56 civilians had been killed and 266 hurt during the attack on Kursk region.
“Given Russia’s long history of false numbers and propaganda, there is simply no way of verifying their claims,” said Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi. “If Russia wants to show the real situation on the ground it can grant such access to the UN and ICRC,” he added; Ukraine has asked the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit Kursk region, but the Kremlin rejected the idea as a “provocation”.
