Trump declines to meet with Zelensky to discuss Ukraine’s ‘victory plan’ against Russia

Despite Ukrainian officials saying last week that former US President Donald Trump would be meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his visit to Washington this week, an official from the Trump campaign told the Associated Press on Wednesday that no such meeting had been scheduled between the two.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a fellow Republican, also said he was “unsure” if he would meet with Zelensky during his visit to the United States on Thursday. “I don’t think we’re actually going to be in town,” he told reporters, citing his “fluid” schedule and a potential hurricane expected to hit the southern United States in the coming days.

Despite two such high-profile snubs, Zelensky is still scheduled to meet with US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday to present his “victory plan” for Ukraine.

While Zelensky’s plan has not been published, it includes four key points, according to The Times; a request for “Trump-proof” Western security guarantees akin to a NATO mutual defence pact; the continuation of Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, which would act as a “territorial bargaining chip”; a request for advanced weapons; and international financial aid to ensure Ukraine’s economic recovery.

Zelensky’s visit to the US, which he has called a “historical mission”, comes as Kyiv attempts to convince its Western allies to approve its use of Western long-range missiles to strike targets deep inside Russian territory. Kyiv’s allies have been very wary of approving such strikes due to fear of escalation, a stance that has been met with frustration from Ukrainian officials.

Western officials are seeking to “lower expectations” around Zelensky’s “victory plan”, and have been briefing reporters that it wasn’t a major “game-changer”, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, adding that one unnamed official had even described the plan as a “wish list”.

Zelensky said in an interview with The New York Times on Tuesday that he would continue to make the case for his plan during his meeting with Biden, as well as in separate meetings he had planned with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron. “Our decision depends on their will,” he stressed.

At least one of Ukraine’s allies suggested that “a new round of outreach” to Putin was now necessary, either by Zelensky himself or other world leaders, Bloomberg reported on the same day that Zelensky told the UN Security Council that the war in Ukraine couldn’t “be calmed by talks” and criticised world leaders who had attempted to engage in dialogue with Moscow.

While Zelensky’s plan aims to put Ukraine in a stronger position for talks with Russia, “a deepening sense of pessimism” can be observed among many Western allies, Bloomberg reported, adding that one official told the outlet that while Kyiv’s “allies want to support Ukraine for as long as necessary”, they needed to “clarify what peace might look like”.