Thread by @United24media

"We offer a real formula for bringing peace, a concrete plan for how we can end the war," says President Zelenskyy in an interview with the New Yorker magazine ahead of his official visit to the US.

Here are the main points.

🧵 (1/10)

On negotiations:

"Putin has zero desire to end the war on any reasonable terms at all. (...) He pretends to open the door to dialogue (...) But it is all just appearance. From our side, we see the game he is playing and we amend our approaches to ending the war."

(2/10)

"After the first peace summit, our partners saw that Russia was not prepared for any talks at all—which confirmed my message to them and my insistence that without making Ukraine strong, they will never force Putin to negotiate fairly and on equal terms."

(3/10)

On the Victory plan:

"Plan A was proposed before the full-scale war, when we called for two things:preventive sanctions and preventive reinforcement of Ukraine with various weapons. I told our partners, If Ukraine is very strong, nothing will happen. They didn’t listen."

(4/10)

"I’m now proposing a new Plan A. (...) If you don’t want this war to drag on, if you do not want Putin to bury us under the corpses of his people, taking more Ukrainian lives in the process, we offer you a plan to strengthen Ukraine."

(5/10)

On the possibility of Ukrainian defeat:

"I believe that we have shielded America from total war. (...) This is a war of postponement for the United States. It’s a way to buy time."

(6/10)

"[Russia] might strike Poland just the same—in response to some provocation from Belarus, for example. (...) America would have to start investing from scratch, and in a war of a totally different calibre. American soldiers would fight in it."

(7/10)

"The idea that the world should end this war at Ukraine’s expense is unacceptable. (...) This kind of scenario would have no basis in international norms, in U.N. statute, in justice. And it wouldn’t necessarily end the war, either."

(8/10)

On the Kursk operation:

"It has already shown some results. It has slowed down the Russians and forced them to move some of their forces to Kursk, on the order of forty thousand troops. Already, our fighters in the east say that they are being battered less frequently."

(9/10)

"Some Russian people could not help but notice how Putin did not run to defend his own land. No, instead he wants to first and foremost look after himself, and to finish off Ukraine. His people are not a priority for him."

(10/10)

This thread was based on an interview with President Zelenskyy for the New Yorker magazine, published on September 22.

📷: Jędrzej Nowicki for The New Yorker