Zelensky’s pleas for help drowned out by the Middle East

While Russia continues its nuclear saber rattling, with renewed threats to use its arsenal if attacked, fighting on the frontlines in Ukraine and in Russia’s Kursk region remains intense. But the diplomatic center of gravity of the war recently shifted to New York and Washington.

Discussions at the UN and meetings scheduled between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are by no means unimportant for the outcomes of the conflict. But it is unlikely that they will constitute the pivotal moment in accelerating the pace towards a Ukrainian victory that Zelensky might envisage.

At meetings at the UN General Assembly and Security Council, Zelensky appealed to world leaders to support his country and force Russia to make peace with Ukraine. His vision to achieve this is via a second global peace summit. This time he wants Russia to participate after the first effort in Switzerland in June achieved very little.

But with Zelensky continuing to push his ten-point peace plan and Putin insisting on Ukraine recognizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea and four regions on the mainland, the two sides are as far apart as ever. So prospects for any meaningful negotiations virtually non-existent.

This has not deterred Zelensky from promoting to Ukraine’s allies what he is calling his “victory plan.”

The plan “envisages quick and concrete steps by our strategic partners … from now until the end of December.” These concrete steps are likely to include more Western military support and the permission to use longer-range Western weapons against targets deeper inside Russia.

This latter point is something on which the Western alliance is divided – and the US skeptical on its strategic