Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in the US on Sunday and is set to hold separate meetings this week with President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former President Donald Trump.
Zelensky is expected to present the president and the two presidential candidates with his so-called “victory plan.” He will also be holding meetings with other world leaders as they gather for the UN General Assembly in New York.
“In the United States, Ukraine will present its Plan for Victory, and the US President will be the first to see it in full,” Zelensky said in a statement ahead of his arrival in the US.
“I will also present the Plan for Victory to all leaders of partner countries who, like President Biden, are world leaders and can become leaders of peace by helping us with the Plan for Victory. We will also present it to Congress – to both parties and both US presidential candidates,” he added.
Zelensky’s first stop in the US was a visit to an ammunition factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania. “I visited a plant that manufactures 155 mm artillery shells. Now, for our warriors who are defending not only our country, not only Ukraine, the plant will be ramping up production,” Zelensky wrote on X.
Zelensky was joined at the factory by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who was in the running to be Harris’s pick for vice president before she chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walze. Both Zelensky and Shapiro signed artillery shells at the plant.
“We must all do our part in the fight for freedom — from the workers in Scranton who make Pennsylvania the arsenal of democracy to the brave Ukrainian soldiers protecting their country,” Shapiro wrote in an X post that included a video of him signing a shell.
During his time in the US, Zelensky will be pushing for US support to launch long-range strikes inside Russia using NATO missiles, a step that would mark a significant escalation of the proxy war and make a direct NATO-Russia war much more likely. The Times reported last week that Zelensky might get the green light to fire British-provided Storm Shadow missiles into Russia, but it’s not expected to be announced publicly.
