Russia Dismisses Zelenskiy’s ‘Victory Plan’ as Gambit to Keep West Onside 

A view shows a site of a Russian air strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine September 15, 2024. (Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy via Telegram/Handout via Reuters)
A view shows a site of a Russian air strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine September 15, 2024. (Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy via Telegram/Handout via Reuters)
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Russia Dismisses Zelenskiy’s ‘Victory Plan’ as Gambit to Keep West Onside 

A view shows a site of a Russian air strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine September 15, 2024. (Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy via Telegram/Handout via Reuters)
A view shows a site of a Russian air strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine September 15, 2024. (Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy via Telegram/Handout via Reuters)

Russia on Friday dismissed a "victory plan" elaborated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a gambit to keep the West onside and said it had nothing to do with the search for a diplomatic or political solution to end the war.

Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that his plan, full details of which he has yet to disclose, was complete after much consultation.

He is due to present it to US President Joe Biden and to address a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday.

Zelenskiy has said his initiative is designed to create terms acceptable to Ukraine, now locked in conflict with Russia for more than 2-1/2 years.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that the plan looked like a self-interested gambit from the Ukrainian leader whom Moscow accuses of trying to drag the West into a full-blown war against Russia.

"The only goal is to forge or prevent the collapse of the anti-Russian coalition, and of course this has nothing to do with the task of finding a political and diplomatic settlement of the situation around Ukraine," said Zakharova.

She repeated Moscow's view that the West should stop financing and supplying arms to Kyiv and said any initiative purportedly aimed at reaching a peaceful settlement which did not include Russia was pointless.



G7 Statement Expresses Support for Israel, Calls Iran Source of Instability 

Emergency personnel work at an impact site following a missile attack from Iran on Israel, in Tel Aviv, Israel, June 16, 2025. (Reuters)
Emergency personnel work at an impact site following a missile attack from Iran on Israel, in Tel Aviv, Israel, June 16, 2025. (Reuters)
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G7 Statement Expresses Support for Israel, Calls Iran Source of Instability 

Emergency personnel work at an impact site following a missile attack from Iran on Israel, in Tel Aviv, Israel, June 16, 2025. (Reuters)
Emergency personnel work at an impact site following a missile attack from Iran on Israel, in Tel Aviv, Israel, June 16, 2025. (Reuters)

The Group of Seven nations expressed support for Israel and labeled its rival Iran as a source of instability in the Middle East, in a statement issued late on Monday that called for peace and stability in the region.

The air war between Iran and Israel, which began on Friday when Israel attacked Iran with air strikes, has raised alarms in a region that had already been on edge since the start of Israel's military assault on Gaza in October 2023.