In Kyiv, Zelensky’s ‘victory plan’ is met with reservations – Technologist

The goal was not so much to present a plan, the most important elements of which had been unveiled in recent weeks, but to send a message of unity. On Wednesday, October 16, two and a half years after the February 24, 2022, Russian invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky outlined his “victory plan” to parliament in a speech designed to reassure and unite at a particularly dark time for his country.

For several months now, the president has been talking about the possibility of opening peace negotiations with Russia. Ukrainians are worried about the outcome of the American presidential election in November, which could upset the support policy of their most powerful ally. Another source of anxiety is the coming winter when the Kremlin’s forces have been busy for months destroying most of the country’s energy production capacity with missile and drone strikes. On the eastern front, Kyiv’s forces, less well-equipped and in lower numbers than the Russian army, are steadily retreating.

But while calls for negotiations are growing among the population as the war drags on, the vast majority still reject territorial concessions. “If by negotiations we mean a freeze on the current situation with Russia, which will then take advantage of the situation to go on the offensive again, then no, Ukrainians are not willing to do that. Ukrainians need a guarantee of security,” said Oleksiy Haran, a professor and researcher at the Democratic Initiatives Foundation in Kyiv.

In this context, the “victory plan” presented by Zelensky is essentially aimed at allowing Ukraine to get military reinforcement and security guarantees from its allies, to strengthen its position. However, there has been some criticism that the country’s future depends primarily on its allies. On Facebook, MP Oleksiy Hontcharenko, of former president Petro Poroshenko’s (2014-2019) European Solidarity party, the largest opposition group in parliament, criticized a “very unrealistic” plan. “There has been no real debate about our capabilities. There have been nothing but empty words,” said the MP.

‘Zelensky deliberately sets the bar very high’

The Ukrainian government’s request for an official invitation to join NATO, and the possibility of using long-range missiles to strike targets deep inside Russian territory, have so far been rejected by allies, who fear further escalation in the war. “Zelensky is a maximalist,” according to political scientist Volodymyr Fessenko, director of the Kyiv-based Penta political studies laboratory, in a column published in the media outlet NV.UA. “He is deliberately setting the bar very high for our political demands, knowing that there will be no immediate response. In two and a half years of war, he has become accustomed to being told ‘no,’ first, then ‘we’ll think about it’ and finally ‘yes.’ But the first step is to offer a concrete solution to our partners, and then to insist with perseverance.”

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