Nato membership part of Zelensky's 'victory plan' for Ukraine

Ukraine must join Nato to win over Russia. That’s the message from the country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky.

This Thursday, Zelensky will meet his American counterpart Joe Biden at the White House in Washington. At the meeting, he will present ‘Ukraine’s victory plan’.

For the past two years, the Ukrainian president has been talking about his ‘peace formula’. A ten-point program with demands that can be likened to total Russian capitulation.

Ukrainian Nato membership

The new ‘victory plan’ instead has only half as many – five – points. One of them is Ukrainian Nato membership, revealed by Zelensky’s advisor and chief of staff Andrij Jermak in a post on Telegram.

The other four points are being kept secret; they will be revealed on Thursday, but Zelensky has been trying to build up expectations for the new plan for several weeks.

At home, Zelensky’s ‘formulas’ and ‘plans’ are met with some coolness. Even the tightly controlled media dare to be cautiously critical.

Zelensky will also meet Kamala Harris in Washington. Photo: Ukrainian government

The new plan is launched ‘while Moscow continues to rapidly advance in the east and unleash relentless missile attacks on Ukraine’, for example, notes Kyiv independent.

Sarcasm seems to drip from the lines when the newspaper writes about Zelensky’s ‘unexpected announcement’ where he, against such odds, has a plan to ‘end Russia’s war with a Ukrainian victory’.

‘Must be realistic’

Zelensky is not the only European head of state visiting the US this week. Czech President Petr Pavel, a general who previously served as NATO’s top military leader, is also in the states for a week-long visit.

On Monday, he landed in New York where he visited the UN General Assembly, and took the opportunity to be interviewed by New York Times.

The questions from the newspaper focused on Ukraine, where the Czech head of state argues that Ukraine ‘must be realistic’.

Czech President Petr Pavel believes Zelensky must be ‘realistic’. Photo: Ukrainian government

‘The most likely outcome of the war is that parts of Ukraine’s territory will temporarily be under Russian occupation,’ he said in the interview.

The president then adds that ‘temporarily’ could mean several years.

Petr Pavel’s statement can be seen as a cold shower for Zelensky ahead of his meeting with Biden. Pavel has long been one of the most fervent supporters of more support for Ukraine, advocated for Ukrainian Nato membership, and said that ‘if Ukraine fails, we all fail’.

As president, Pavel has only a ceremonial role in the Czech state, similar to the Swedish king’s, but his background in both NATO and the military makes him a very influential voice in security policy matters.