Zelenskyy says Russia's war must end no later than 2025

President Volodymr Zelenskyy has said Russia’s war in Ukraine must end no later than 2025, as he called for progress on his country’s NATO membership.

“The situation on the battlefield creates an opportunity to make this choice – a choice for decisive action to end the war no later than in 2025 and we are counting on President Biden’s leadership, we rely on the strong and wise steps of Britain, France, Germany and Italy to bring security and peace to Europe,” Zelenskyy said at a press conference in Dubrovnik, where he is participating in a summit with leaders of south eastern European states.

He added added that “inviting Ukraine into NATO and future membership for Ukraine would be a real step towards world peace.”

During his visit, the Ukrainian president also signed an agreement with Croatia on further cooperation, particularly regarding humanitarian aid, demining and war crimes prosecution experience that Croatia has from its own 1991-95 war.

Besides Croatia, the summit was being attended by premiers, presidents or foreign ministers from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey.

Summit participants passed a declaration condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and supporting Zelenskyy’s peace efforts, Ukraine’s membership in NATO and its reconstruction after the war.

“There can be no free, peaceful and prosperous Europe without a free, peaceful and prosperous Ukraine,” the joint declaration said.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson from Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said it will be “impossible to achieve peace in Ukraine” if the country joins the NATO alliance.

In her weekly briefing, Maria Zakharova accused the west of attempting to turn Ukraine into a “springboard for confrontation” with Russia.

Ukraine’s ‘victory plan’

President Zelenskyy has said he intends to present his ‘victory plan’ to Western leaders this week, but a weekend meeting to discuss it has been postponed as US President Joe Biden said he had to stay home to respond to Hurricane Milton’s landfall in Florida.

Zelenskyy said he hopes his meeting with Biden at the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany, originally scheduled for Saturday, will be rescheduled soon. That meeting was meant to include about 20 Western leaders and defence ministers.

“We will present our victory plan in detail there, the same as we presented it in the White House,” Zelenskyy said. He added that he now planned to meet with the leaders of Britain, France, Italy and Germany this week to present the plan.

Zelenskyy said the plan is about strengthening Ukraine “both geopolitically and on the battlefield” before any kind of dialogue with Russia.

“Weakness of any of our allies will inspire (Russian President Vladimir) Putin,” he said. “That’s why we’re asking them to strengthen us, in terms of security guarantees, in terms of weapons, in terms of our future after this war. In my view, he (Putin) only understands force.”

The specifics of Zelenskyy’s blueprint have been kept quiet but elements of the plan have emerged, including the need for fast action on decisions Western allies have been mulling since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.

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Kyiv is still awaiting word from Western partners on its repeated requests to use long-range weapons to hit targets on Russian soil.