UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelensky said today that support from his embattled nation’s Western allies is key to his “victory plan” to end the devastating war with Russia.

Mr Zelensky was detailing the plan to European Union leaders.

He told reporters that the plan, which proposes Nato membership for Ukraine before the war’s end, aims to pave the way for a diplomatic solution to end the conflict.

“I think that this plan doesn’t depend on Russian will, only on the will of our partners,” he said before addressing leaders at an EU summit in Brussels.

The EU is a key supporter of Ukraine, a candidate member of the 27-nation bloc, as it fights Russia’s invasion that began in February 2022.

President Zelensky outlined the five-point plan to Ukraine’s parliament on Wednesday.

Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte was muted in his response to the plan on Wednesday but said that Ukraine’s place was eventually within Nato’s ranks. 

Mr Zelensky insists that a membership invitation is central to his “victory plan” and would provide his country with the ultimate security guarantee against Russia.

Another major plank of the plan is for permission to use Western-supplied longer-range missiles to strike military targets deep inside Russia, steps that have been met with reluctance by Kiev’s allies so far.

But German Chancellor Olaf Scholz downplayed the chances of Berlin changing its opposition to the use of long-range weapons against Russian targets.

“You know Germany’s position on the questions that are touched on here; nothing will change about this,” he said.

The United States and Germany remain concerned about being dragged into a direct war with nuclear-armed Russia, and they lead a group of countries that oppose allowing Ukraine to join Nato until the conflict ends, which would potentially bring the alliance into the war.