Zelenskiy Warns Ukraine Allies Against Showing Weakness to Putin

Volodymyr Zelenskiy said any sign of weakness from his Western allies may embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin as he kicked off a three-day tour of European countries to rally support for his plan to end the war.

The Ukrainian president will travel to meet the leaders of the UK, France, Italy and Germany, he told reporters at a news conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia, on Wednesday. 

While Zelenskiy has repeatedly urged his Western partners to provide more weapons and air defenses, the pressure from allies has started to mount for a more concrete outline that considers how the two-and-a-half-year war might end. 

Zelenskiy reinforced Kyiv’s main demands for ending the war, including a full withdrawal of Russian forces from the territory it occupies and NATO membership for Ukraine. 

“The weakness of certain partners will make Putin confident in his next steps,” he said at the news conference with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. “His desire is not to end the war, but to prolong the process.”

“That’s why we ask to strengthen us - both in terms of security guarantees, and weapons and the future after the war,” the Ukrainian leader said. “He only understands power.” 

A standoff on the battlefield, strained budgets in the West and above all the outcome of the US presidential election in November have aligned to induce allies to look more closely at a negotiated end to the conflict.

Zelenskiy was initially scheduled to attend a gathering of countries that provide military aid to Ukraine at Ramstein air base in Germany, but it was postponed after US President Joe Biden delayed his visit to Europe.

The meeting offered Zelenskiy a chance to rally allies around his “victory plan” that he said offers “clear, specific steps for a just end to the war.” While that plan got a lukewarm reception when he briefed Biden last month, the president dispatched top aides back to Washington this week to work on the details of the outline.

Moscow’s troops have been making grinding advances in the country’s east over recent weeks. Meanwhile, relentless Russian missile and drone attacks have damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructure raising prospects of power, water and heating shortages during the third full winter of the full-scale invasion.

“‘Giving territory to someone means lighting up a huge green light to any powerful actor with expansionist ambitions to make a similar aggression anywhere in the world,” Plenkovic said. “Using the word ‘concession’ would be the worst message in international relations today. It would be an encouragement to any aggressor in the world.”

With assistance from Daryna Krasnolutska.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.