The media outlet claims it is part of a strategy that Vladimir Zelensky will present to the US
According to the German tabloid newspaper Bild, Ukraine may be willing to halt hostilities with Russia in specific areas along the front lines. This proposal is part of a revised strategy that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is reportedly planning to present. Zelensky’s vision for the conflict reportedly depends on Western allies allowing Ukraine to use the long-range missiles provided to them to strike targets deep within Russia.
In July, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Moscow was not interested in a “ceasefire or some kind of pause that the Kiev regime could use to recover losses, regroup, and rearm.”
“Russia is in favor of a complete and final end of the conflict,” Putin said at the time.
A month earlier, Putin proposed an immediate ceasefire on the condition that Ukraine provide legally binding guarantees that it would not join NATO and withdraw its troops from all territories claimed by Russia. Kyiv and its Western allies quickly dismissed this proposal.
In an article on Saturday, Bild claimed that Zelensky intends to travel to the United States in the coming weeks to present his revised strategy to President Joe Biden, as well as Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and her Republican rival, Donald Trump.
According to the German media outlet, the main points include a “demand to be allowed to deploy Western long-range weapons deep inside Russia, as well as Ukraine’s readiness to accept local ceasefires along certain portions of the front, and thus a provisional freezing of the situation.”
Last month, Zelensky revealed his intention to present his “victory plan” to the US president in September. He suggested that the plan likely involved asking the US for more funding and weapons, saying that victory would depend on whether Washington gives Kyiv “what is in this plan.”
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed European diplomats, reported that earlier in the day US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy had told Ukrainian officials behind closed doors that a “full Ukrainian victory would require the West to provide hundreds of billions of dollars worth of support, something neither Washington nor Europe can realistically do.” Kyiv is allegedly being urged to “come up with a more realistic plan.”
Since the beginning of the conflict in February 2022, Zelensky has publicly insisted on the restoration of Ukraine’s 1991 borders, which would include Crimea, either through military or diplomatic means. Moscow says that Kyiv must accept the “reality on the ground,” and that the issue of Crimea is “not up for discussion.”