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.



UN Warns Congo’s M23 Conflict Could Spark Regional War 

A pick up truck of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) patrols in Goma, on January 23, 2025. (AFP)
A pick up truck of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) patrols in Goma, on January 23, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Warns Congo’s M23 Conflict Could Spark Regional War 

A pick up truck of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) patrols in Goma, on January 23, 2025. (AFP)
A pick up truck of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) patrols in Goma, on January 23, 2025. (AFP)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that eastern Congo's M23 conflict risks spiraling into a broader regional war, his spokesperson said in a statement, condemning the rebels' capture of another strategic town, Sake.

Fighting has flared more fiercely in Democratic Republic of Congo's mineral-rich east since the start of the year as the Tutsi-led M23 group seized control of more territory than ever before, prompting thousands more people to flee their homes.

Congo and the United Nations accuse neighboring Rwanda of fueling the three-year M23 insurgency with its own troops and weapons. Rwanda denies this.

"This offensive has a devastating toll on the civilian population and heightened the risk of a broader regional war," UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday.

The Secretary-General "calls on all actors to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to put an end to all forms of support to armed groups," Dujarric said.

After seizing the town of Minova on Tuesday, M23 fighters have continued their advance, moving into the town of Sake, around 20 km (12 miles) from the provincial capital Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo.

The national army spokesman did not respond to requests for comment about the situation in Sake on Thursday, but the UN statement condemned "the recent seizure of Sake, which increases the threat to the town of Goma".

The M23 briefly managed to take over Goma during a previous rebellion in 2012, prompting international donors to cut aid to Rwanda. Even then, the rebels did not hold as much ground as they do now.