Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the war with Russia could end sooner than some think.
“I think we are closer to peace than we think,” he told ABC News.
He added that Ukraine could push Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the conflict, but only if Kyiv was in a “strong position” – again calling on his Western allies to bolster Ukrainian forces.
The Ukrainian president will travel to the United States this week to address the United Nations General Assembly and present what he calls a “victory plan” to Western allies, including U.S. President Joe Biden.
In a statement before the visit, Zelensky said the plan included further weapons donations, diplomatic efforts to pressure Russia to agree to peace and holding Moscow accountable for a full-scale invasion in 2022.
In an interview with ABC News, Zelensky said his plan for victory was not to negotiate with Russia but “to be a bridge to a diplomatic way out and stop the war.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Russia was wary of media reports about Ukraine’s plans, adding that the conflict would only end if Russia’s goals were achieved.
Zelensky has for some time been asking Western countries to allow Ukraine to relax restrictions on the use of long-range missiles that can be used to strike deep into Russia. He is expected to do so again this week when he visits the United States.
On Sunday, Biden said he had not yet decided whether to give Ukraine a green light. Zelensky said the United States needs to lead the decision: “Everyone is looking forward to [Biden]we need this to defend ourselves,” he told ABC.
Zelensky will address the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday and will meet with U.S. presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
Czech Republic President Peter Pavel told The New York Times that Ukraine must be “realistic” about the prospect of regaining the eastern parts of the country that Russia seized during the past 31 months of war.
He added that the most likely outcome of the war was that part of Ukraine would remain under Russian occupation for several years.
Pavel told The Times that defeat for Ukraine or Russia “simply won’t happen,” adding that the end of the conflict would be “somewhere in between.”
Zelensky’s visit to the United States comes as Ukraine continues to be under sustained attack from Russia.
The Ukrainian army’s invasion of Russia’s Kursk region in August failed to ease Moscow’s pressure on eastern Ukraine.
Casualties are occurring daily in some areas, and Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been extensively damaged. There are concerns that Russia may seize more major towns in the east of the country.
In a daytime attack on Tuesday, Russia targeted a high-rise apartment building in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
At least three people were killed and 15 injured in the attack, which local authorities said was carried out using a glide bomb.
The eastern Ukrainian town of Poltava came under attack on Monday night, damaging infrastructure, while a “massive airstrike” in the southern city of Zaporozhye killed one person and injured six others.
Russian forces have made significant gains in the east and are closing in on Vukhledar, a city just south of the Donbas frontline that the Russians have been trying to capture since a full-scale invasion.
Ukrainian military expert and retired colonel Kostyantin Mashavets warned his fellow Ukrainians that they must be “psychologically prepared” for the loss of Selidov, Toletsk and Vukhledar in the eastern Donbas region.
“I’m happy to make mistakes,” he wrote on Facebook.
“But from the information I have … this is likely to be an event in the near future.”
