Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s White House meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden was billed as his opportunity to sell the U.S. on his reformed “peace plan,” now appearing as a “victory plan.” A key component of the vaunted plan is reportedly to allow Kiev to fire long-range Western missiles deep into Russia. Prior to his meeting this afternoon, he spent an hour meeting with U.S. senators, where he reportedly was emphatic about the need for permission to strike deeper into Russia. Some lawmakers in the meeting said they also gave Zelenskyy some suggestions on how he could be more persuasive with Biden.
The White House readout on the Biden-Zelenskyy meeting reflected that permission to strike deeper into Russia was not granted at this point —yet “additional assistance” is scheduled to be taken up in a couple of weeks, so the issue is far from dead. The full readout follows:
“President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. met today with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine at the White House to discuss U.S. support for Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression. President Biden outlined his decision to surge U.S. security assistance to Ukraine, and President Zelenskyy presented his plan to achieve victory over Russia. The two leaders discussed the diplomatic, economic, and military aspects of President Zelenskyy’s plan and tasked their teams to engage in intensive consultations regarding next steps. On October 12, 2024, President Biden will host a leader-level meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Germany, where the two leaders will review progress on these consultations and coordinate with international partners on additional assistance for Ukraine. President Biden is determined to provide Ukraine with the support it needs to win.”
Ukraine’s Office of the President statement, “Volodymyr Zelenskyy Presented the Victory Plan to the President of the United States,” read that Zelenskyy “presented the Victory Plan to the U.S. President. The leaders discussed the diplomatic, economic, and military aspects of the Plan and instructed their teams to hold consultations on the future steps.” And on Oct. 12, the two “will have a bilateral meeting to review the progress of consultations. Also, they will meet with international partners to coordinate additional support for Ukraine.” Then it announced both the U.S. sending of another $5.5 billion of weaponry plus “a new $2.4 billion package of security assistance.”
