16 Oct, 2024 21:25
Zelensky aide reveals secret clauses of ‘victory plan’
The classified component details attack plans on Russia and a weaponry wish list, according to Mikhail Podoliak
The secret component of the “victory plan”unveiled by VladimirZelensky on Wednesday includes Kiev’s targets for long-range attacks on Russian soil, Mikhail Podoliak, a top aide to the Ukrainian leader, has revealed.
The parts of the plan that were not disclosed to the public consist of a list of targets, a plan of action, and a detailing of the weapons needed to carry out such attacks against Russia, Podoliak told RBC Ukraine in an interview on Wednesday.
“There, in the appendices, it is precisely said what kind of weapons should be used to destroy logistics very far from the front line… what targets will be hit and how many weapons are needed for this,” the official stated.
Zelensky revealed the so-called “victory plan”earlier in the day in an address to the country’s parliament. The Ukrainian leader toured Western capitals in recent weeks to show the plan to his backers in private and try to generate support for it.
The public part of the plan largely consists of a number of demands made of Ukraine’s Western supporters. Kiev requested an immediate invitation to join NATO, a lifting of restrictions on the use of Western-supplied long-range weapons for strikes on Russia, as well as the deployment of “a comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrence package” on Ukrainian soil.
The plan, particularly its cornerstone NATO accession demand, appears to have elicited a mixed reaction in the West. Washington’s envoy to NATO, Julianne Smith, for instance, said that while the bloc remains committed to Kiev’s “irreversible path of membership,” actual accession was not a “short-term” matter.
Moscow dismissed the plan as a set of “incoherent slogans,” with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemning it as “bloody foam on the lips of a neo-Nazi killer.”She also dismissed the NATO aspirations long-touted by Kiev, suggesting the only place the West actually deems fit for Ukraine in its “security architecture” is “in a coffin and Ukrainian citizens in graves.”
(Zelensky has lost his mind and attention)
https://www.rt.com/russia/605823-ukrainian-plan-secret-clauses/
16 Oct, 2024 19:18
Ukraine wants to join NATO while Biden is US president – envoy
Kiev fears what is to come after the American elections in November
Admitting Ukraine into NATO before the end of the year could be a major part of Joe Biden’s legacy as president, Kiev’s envoy to the bloc, Natalia Galibarenko, has said.
Vladimir Zelensky has pitched immediate membership in the US-led bloc as part of his ‘victory plan’, which he presented on Wednesday. Galibarenko explained the reasoning behind this in an interview with Reuters in Brussels, recorded the day before.
“Our idea is that giving Ukraine [an] invitation at this moment is a political signal,” she told the agency. “We sincerely believe that it can be part of the legacy of current American administration.”
Russia has demanded Ukraine’s military neutrality, and the specifically the renunciation of its NATO aspirations, as one of the preconditions for the current conflict to end.
According to Galibarenko, fast-tracking Kiev into the bloc would be “like a final, final vedict,”making Moscow unable to press the issue further. Even an invitation by itself, without any practical actions towards membership, would “send a powerful public message,” she argued.
While NATO has declared that Ukraine is on an “irreversible” path to join eventually, it has qualified this by saying it will happen “when allies agree and conditions are met.” The US-led bloc has also told Kiev that it cannot join while at war and declined to give a timeline for accession.
Two NATO members, Slovakia and Hungary, have already said they would vote against admitting Ukraine. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has argued that this would mean an open war with Russia, which he is opposed to.
The US has been one of the biggest supporters of Ukraine, approving almost $180 million in military and financial aid to Kiev since 2022. According to Reuters, Galibarenko’s push suggests there is “major uncertainty” in Kiev about what might happen after the American presidential election on November 5.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ candidate for the White House, has “signaled”continued support for Ukraine but has not spelled out any policies. Former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump has promised to end the conflict within a day, presumably by discontinuing the US aid that is sustaining Ukraine.
https://www.rt.com/russia/605821-ukraine-nato-biden-legacy/