Zelensky ends European promotional tour for “Victory Plan”

Ukrainian President Zelensky has completed his three-day tour of Europe, during which he primarily presented his “victory plan.” He was unable to present concrete results.

Looking back on his three-day European tour, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has promised his compatriots further international support for the war against Russia. “The world is already in the third year of this war with Ukraine, because our people – millions of Ukrainians – deserve this support!” assured the head of state in his daily video message before his departure from Berlin.

He presented his “victory plan” in Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy. “All the details of our strategy to bring peace closer – geopolitical, military, economic,” Zelensky said, without becoming more specific.

It is important to act together, he appealed to the foreign partners. “Anyone who has the appropriate forces, the necessary influence to guarantee a reliable peace and force Russia to make peace,” Zelensky said. And it is time to act now in these months. From now on, his team will work with partners in Europe to fill the planned steps with maximum content.

“And this plan of ours must lead to an effective second peace summit to end the war,” the president said. This is a just, fair end to the war. “I am sure that the Victory Plan – if the partners will actually be resolutely on our side – will become a reliable bridge between the situation now and the peace we strive for,” Zelensky emphasized.

In his speech, he thanked Germany in particular for the military aid it had provided. “I would particularly like to thank the anti-aircraft systems. Germany is undoubtedly a leader in support,” the President emphasized, highlighting another Iris-T anti-aircraft system. Support for the coming year has already been discussed with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). “It is particularly important for us that the amount of aid from Germany remains stable and that, despite everything, will be a signal for the safe path to peace,” said the Ukrainian.

The Russian parliament reacted to Zelensky’s visit to Germany and further announced military aid with malicious comments. “Will this save the Kiev regime? Definitely not!” wrote the head of the Duma’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Leonid Slutsky, on Telegram. All howitzers and tanks delivered would burn, like the German Tiger tanks did during the Second World War, and a Russian victory was inevitable. “And Scholz should take better care of the problems of German voters,” concluded Slutski.

The Russian military once again launched combat drones into various regions of Ukraine on Saturday night. Several swarms of the unmanned missiles equipped with explosives were reported near Sumy and Kharkiv in the east, as well as from Zaporizhzhia. There was initially no information available about the effects of these attacks.

Meanwhile, Russian troops claim to have recaptured more than a dozen towns in the Kursk border region. “Of the Kursk settlements occupied by the enemy, 15 have already been liberated,” claimed the commander of the Chechen special forces unit “Akhmat”, Apti Alaudinov, in an interview for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. The information could not be independently verified.

According to Russian authorities, Ukrainian troops had taken control of 28 Russian towns. According to information from Kiev, however, almost 100 Russian locations in the Kursk region came under Ukrainian control after the advance at the beginning of August.

The eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, close to the front, is in danger of being left without a district heating supply in the coming winter due to constant Russian shelling. “Due to a lack of natural gas, water and electricity, the heating season is at risk and is unlikely to happen,” said the head of the city’s military administration, Serhiy Dobrjak, according to a statement.

Of the once over 60,000 residents, more than 12,000 are said to have remained in the city. The front line runs about eight kilometers southeast of Pokrovsk. In a recent report, the United Nations warned of impending heating and power outages across Ukraine due to damage to power plants caused by Russian shelling.