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The Biden administration is concerned that Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s victory plan in the war with Russia lacks a comprehensive strategy and is focused on providing more weapons and lifting restrictions on long-range missiles.
The Wall Street Journal reported this.
Western officials stated that Kyiv’s proposal centers on armament and the easing of restrictions on long-range missiles.
Before the meeting between Biden and Zelenskyy, senior American and European officials familiar with the general contours of the plan indicated that it does not offer a clear path to victory for Ukraine, especially as Russian forces are slowly but steadily gaining ground on the battlefield.
“I’m not impressed; there isn’t much new,” said one senior official.
The publication notes that the U.S. and Ukraine have reached a critical juncture in the war without a shared vision. Discrepancies between Kyiv and Washington have also emerged amid disagreements among the U.S. and its allies regarding lifting restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles on Russian territory.
A central element of the plan is that the U.S. must give Ukraine the green light to use weapons as Kyiv sees fit, stated Finnish President Alexander Stubb in a media interview.
Biden has refused for months to move forward on Ukraine’s longstanding request to lift restrictions on using long-range missiles against targets in Russia.
The U.S. position has faced strong opposition from several European leaders who believe that after 2.5 years, Ukraine deserves the right to confront Russian forces without hindrance. Speaking in the corridors of the UN General Assembly this week, some world leaders were noticeably frustrated.
At the same time, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz supported Biden’s reluctance to allow the unrestricted use of long-range missiles.
In his speech at the UN, Zelenskyy warned of future threats from Russia to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and nuclear power plants.
American and European officials say that behind the scenes, Zelenskyy put forward a maximalist proposal, hoping that the U.S. and its allies would give Kyiv everything it wants.
Meanwhile, reports indicate that the current state of the Ukrainian plan has disappointed Biden’s top aides, who have visited Kyiv in recent weeks and are familiar with the elements of the plan.
They hoped to hear something substantive that the Biden administration could support, given that it has only four months left in office.
The Ukrainian plan broadly covers Ukraine’s needs on the battlefield, political transformations within the country, and the economy, stated a senior State Department official on Tuesday.
However, American and European officials noted that the most developed part of the plan is the first phase—requests related to armaments—while other key elements lack specificity.
Read also: Zelenskyy and Biden met on margins of UN General Assembly
