US says Blinken briefed on Ukraine plan to push Russia to end the war

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By Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was briefed last week during his trip to Kyiv on elements of a Ukrainian plan to push Russia to end the war, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy first spoke of his “victory plan” last month, saying he wanted to discuss it with U.S. President Joe Biden. He is expected to present it on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York next week that he said he hopes to attend.

Earlier on Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Washington had seen the plan. “We think it lays out a strategy and a plan that can work,” she said.

Speaking at a regular press briefing, State Department’s Miller said Blinken shared the ambassador’s assessment but declined to say more on it for now.

“I think I ought to let President Zelensky, whose plan ultimately this is, speak to the details of it,” Miller said.

Zelenskiy also said in late August that he would discuss the plan with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and probably also with Republican Donald Trump, the two nominees for the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election.

The move comes at a critical juncture in the war, with Russian troops continuing to inch forward in eastern Ukraine despite Kyiv’s forces launching a surprise incursion last month into Russia’s Kursk region.

Ukraine has been pushing for a follow-up summit to advance its vision of peace. The first summit, held in Switzerland in June, pointedly excluded Russia, while attracting scores of delegations.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, David Brunnstrom and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Deepa Babington)