The items in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's victory plan are homework not done by the West, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda says.
“These key elements of Zelensky’s plan are essentially our homework that has not been done,” he told reporters in Brussels on Thursday.
The plan, unveiled to Ukrainian lawmakers on Wednesday, consists of five parts: an invitation to Ukraine to join NATO, a defence aspect, deterrence of Russian aggression, economic growth and cooperation, and security architecture after the war.
“There is nothing new in there. There is what we wanted to do but failed to do at the Vilnius summit on inviting Ukraine to join NATO, and then the same thing happened again in Washington,” the Lithuanian president said.
“As long as we don’t do it, we are far from victory. The very causal links here are self-evident,” Nausėda added.
Zelensky will present his victory plan to NATO defence ministers gathering Thursday in Brussels as well as at an EU leaders’ summit.
NATO chief Mark Rutte called the victory plan a “strong signal” but cautioned he was not endorsing Zelensky’s “whole plan” – which calls first and foremost for an immediate invitation for Kyiv to join the US-led alliance.
At the NATO summit in Washington in July, NATO members declared Ukraine to be on an “irreversible path” to membership.
However, the United States and Germany have led opposition to immediate entry, believing it would effectively put the alliance at war with nuclear-armed Russia.
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