Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in the United States on Sunday (22 September) to attend sessions at the UN General Assembly and urged his partners to help achieve “a shared victory for a truly just peace.”
“This fall will determine the future of this war,” he said in a post on X alongside his nightly video address, delivered from his plane.
Zelenskyy made an unannounced stop in President Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania to visit a munitions plant which he said was ramping up manufacture of crucial 155-millimeter artillery shells to help the Ukraine war effort.
“It is in places like this where you can truly feel that the democratic world can prevail,” Zelenskiy said in a post on X, alongside photographs of him thanking plant workers.
The Ukrainian leader’s concerns about a shortage of such munitions have taken on added urgency as Russia pummels Ukraine’s energy grid ahead of the critical winter months.
In his video address, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was doing everything it could, by acquiring weapons and through diplomacy, “to consolidate our partners’ support and force Russia into peace.”
Zelenskyy flew on to New York, where he was expected to meet heads of US companies to discuss his country’s energy needs as well as leaders of states and international organizations.
Zelenskyy’s visit coincides with US efforts to prepare a $375 million military aid package for Ukraine, breaking a months-long trend toward smaller packages for Kyiv’s military operations.
Zelenskyy said he would present a “victory plan” in Ukraine’s war against Russia first to Biden. He is also expected to discuss the plan with Vice President Kamala Harris in a separate meeting on Thursday, as well as with other world leaders.
Zelenskyy tells von der Leyen Ukraine 'victory plan' depends on quick decisions by allies
Ukraine’s “victory plan” in the war against Russia depends on quick decisions being taken by allies this year, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday (20 September) during a visit by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Zelenskyy also hopes to meet Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has called US aid to its eastern European ally a waste of money and has declined to say he wants Ukraine to win. Trump has said he will probably meet with Zelenskyy this week but no date has been announced.
Trump faces Harris in the 5 November US election.
Two US officials told Reuters on Friday that an aid package, expected to be announced this week, includes patrol boats, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS), 155- and 105-millimeter artillery ammunition, spare parts and other weapons.
The officials said the contents and size of the package could change in the coming days ahead of Biden’s expected signature.
Ukrinform said Zelenskyy would speak at a UN summit on Monday, participate in Security Council meetings on Ukraine on Tuesday, and speak during the General Assembly on Wednesday.
Russia not interested in peace summit
Russia will take no part in any follow-up to the Swiss-organized “peace summit” held in June as the process amounts to “fraud,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday.
Russia was not invited to the June meeting, attended by delegations from more than 90 countries, and dismissed its deliberations as meaningless without Moscow’s participation.
“This process itself has nothing to do with a settlement,” Zakharova wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “It is another manifestation of fraud by the Anglo-Saxons and their Ukrainian puppets.”
She said Russia was ready to discuss “truly serious proposals” that take account of the “situation on the ground” – an oblique reference to Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions, though without fully occupying any of them.
Ukraine and its Western backers were “not thinking about peace,” she said, citing Ukraine’s incursion into southern Russia’s Kursk region, launched last month, and to Zelenskyy’s persistent appeals for long-range Western weaponry.
On the eve of the June summit, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin set conditions for holding talks with Ukraine, including a demand that Kyiv abandon all four of the regions Moscow now claims as its own. Moscow has since said it can hold no talks while Ukrainian troops are in its Kursk region.
(Edited by Georgi Gotev)
Source: euractiv.com
