Kiev. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday his plan for victory against Russia could restore peace in the region by next year, but it would require Kiev becoming a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) before the war ends. which is not yet supported by some key Western allies. “If we start moving forward according to our victory plan, it may be possible to end the war by next year,” Zelensky said in an address to Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.
He presented a five-point victory plan, the first point of which—granting Ukraine NATO membership in the midst of the war—is perhaps the most ambitious and the most disturbing to Western allies. Zelensky said granting NATO membership to Ukraine would be “proof of (the allies’) determination” to support Kiev in the war. Article 5 of NATO guarantees collective security and is considered the pillar on which the credibility of the organization rests.
It reflects the political commitment of all member states to come to the aid of a member whose sovereignty or territorial integrity is under threat. NATO takes its decisions by consensus. Many member countries, including the US and Germany, are against Ukraine’s inclusion in the organization amid the war with Russia, as they fear getting involved in a large-scale war with Moscow. At the NATO summit in Washington in July, its 32 member states declared that Ukraine was on an “irreversible” path to regaining membership of the Western military alliance. Any decision regarding the start of membership negotiations is not possible before the next summit, proposed in the Netherlands in June 2025.
According to officials, Zelensky’s victory plan includes a series of attacks on various targets on Russian soil, continuing the military operation that began in Russia’s Kursk region in August, and targeting Russian infrastructure with drones and missiles. He said that for victory against Russia, Zelensky stressed on providing additional air defense systems to the allied countries and increasing the exchange of intelligence information. According to officials, some points of the plan were confidential, which Zelensky did not mention in his address to parliament.
