President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed his “victory plan” with the leaders of Britain, France and Italy and the new head of NATO on Thursday, the 10th of October, in a bid to win military support to prepare for possible peace talks, reports Reuters.
As winter approaches in Ukraine, with Russia continuing to attack key energy infrastructure, the Ukrainian leader wants further support from the West to try to shift the balance on the battlefield.
“The next peace summit should take place in November. A plan will be ready… at the beginning of November the plan will be available with all the details,” Zelenskyy told reporters in Paris in response to a question about a possible peace conference, dismissing for now any talk of a ceasefire with Russia.
He did not give any specific details of the “victory plan” in London or Paris.
In London, Zelenskyy met with NATO chief Mark Rutte and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In addition to the “victory plan”, they discussed whether Ukraine could use Western missiles against targets in Russia.
Zelenskyy said after the London meeting that he had set out how to create “the right conditions for a just end to the war” without going into detail.
Zelenskyy has urged the US and the UK to join France in allowing the use of the long-range missiles they have donated on Russian territory. It is not clear whether Ukraine has already used French SCALP missiles.
“We discussed this today, but the final decision is up to each individual country,” the NATO Secretary General told reporters after talks in Downing Street.
A spokesman for Stermer said there had been no change in the UK government’s position on the use of long-range missiles, which still bans their use inside Russia.
Another ally, Italy, where Zelenskyy met with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday evening, is strongly against Ukraine using its Storm Shadows to attack Russia.
However, Meloni said after the talks that Italy is committed to helping Ukraine for as long as it takes.
“The aim of our support is to bring Ukraine to the negotiating table in the best possible position, a negotiating table that does not mean surrendering, as too many have cowardly suggested,” she said.
In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron sought to show that his country remains fully behind Kyiv in its war, despite political difficulties in the country that have raised questions about how much aid France will be able to provide in the coming months.
Macron said that France would continue to honour its current commitments, which include three billion euros in aid this year. Paris is training and equipping a brigade of 3 000 Ukrainian soldiers and plans to send Mirage fighter jets to Ukraine early next year.
“It was important for me to share views with the president on the upcoming weeks and months of military and diplomatic cooperation (to come),” Macron said alongside Zelenskyy.