Volodymyr Zelensky assures us that he has a “plan” to end the war in Ukraine. During a press conference held in Kiev on Tuesday, August 27, the Ukrainian president detailed his plan to end this conflict with Russia, without compromising the integrity of his country. “The main objective is to force Russia to end the war. […] “We really want justice for Ukraine. And if this plan is accepted – and, secondly, if it is implemented – we believe that the main goal will be achieved,” he said.
In this sense, the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk constitutes “one of the stages” of this plan. Since Tuesday, Ukraine has claimed control of 100 localities and 1,294 km2 of territory on Russian soil, as well as the capture of nearly 600 Russian soldiers. Volodymyr Zelensky had justified this offensive as a desire to create a “buffer zone” between the two countries, but also as a symbol of “justice” and “reprisals” in order to import the war onto Russian soil.
A four-part plan
But the offensive in Kursk also has another goal, assures the Ukrainian president: to reduce the number of voices calling for a compromise. with Vladimir Putin. Because if the hypothesis that Ukraine has no choice but to cede part of its territory to Russia was beginning to gain weight, the fact that Kiev’s troops are also nibbling away at Russian soil reshuffles the cards for a future discussion. “There can be no compromise with Putin. Today, dialogue is an empty principle, because he does not want to end the war by diplomatic means,” Volodymyr Zelensky said at his press conference.
Beyond the Kursk raid, the Ukrainian president also delivered three other parts of his plan for ending the war. First, Ukraine’s participation in the global security infrastructure; that is, speeding up the process of Kiev joining NATO and, to a lesser extent, the European Union. But the Ukrainian president also stressed the need for global diplomatic pressure on Russia in favor of peace, as well as an economic aspect, without giving much more detail.
Towards a new summit for peace?
The Ukrainian president plans to present this “victory plan” to the Biden administration in September, as well as to his two potential successors in the White House, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
But Volodymyr Zelensky also has an idea in mind: holding a second peace summit, after the one held in Switzerland last June, but with several notable differences. The first would be to have a Russian representative at the negotiating table this time, while Moscow had not been invited to Switzerland. The second would be to organize it in a country of the “Global South”, as Andrii Yermak, chief of staff of President Volodymyr Zelensky, stated on Tuesday. A way to try to convince the international community beyond the Western countries already won over to the Ukrainian cause.
Unsurprisingly, Russia is very far from adhering to this project. This Tuesday, even before Volodymyr Zelensky’s press conference, the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov had been relatively clear. “If the West wants to normalize the situation in Europe, it must sit at the negotiating table without the red tape of the ‘Zelensky formula’, he snapped, denouncing both the peace summit in Switzerland and a possible new round of negotiations on the conditions desired by kyiv. In the wake of the start of the Kursk incursion, Russia had already ruled out any possible discussion with Ukraine. Enough to set the tone: Vladimir Putin only seems ready to negotiate when he feels he has cornered Ukraine to the maximum.