Zelensky gives his Ukraine ‘victory plan’ a hard sell in the US – did the pitch fall flat?

Overall, the “victory plan” pitch is to bolster Ukraine’s position on the battlefield and push Putin towards a diplomatic peace.

But it was another political mismatch, believes the LSE’s Ms Zolkina, with the suite of proposals failing to “raise much enthusiasm”.

“Ukraine has the idea that it should be doubling down on its ambitions,” she says.

Zelensky is “sticking to the idea of getting an invitation to Nato but the US just isn’t there yet,” she adds.

On the permission to use long-range missiles, critics of Biden have accused him of getting cold feet as he tries to help Harris into the White House.

However Ms Zolkina says big announcements this week weren’t necessarily on the cards – although hopes remain that permission could yet come through, despite further nuclear threats from Putin.

Here in Kyiv, people continue to insist they can’t conceive of giving up land to Russia – often on the basis that a truce would simply allow Putin to regroup and relaunch fresh attacks down the line.

However Ms Zolkina believes that conversation around a ceasefire could change if genuinely meaningful security guarantees were on the table.

“If Ukraine was promised membership of Nato or if Ukraine signed a really strong security agreement with a big international player, this discussion about a possible tactical ceasefire would turn in a different way and the political resistance would not be as strong as it now.”

It has been a week where Zelensky went and gave his “victory plan” a hard sell. But the reality is that Washington DC has yet to show great eagerness, while events in the Middle East continue to divert attention away from Russia’s bloody invasion.