Zelensky's serious defeat and immediate problems in Ukraine — Mass media

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky will face domestic political problems as a result of the lack of approval in the West of his "victory plan," a source told Strana.

"Zelensky has made himself a hostage to the decisions of the West on long-range missiles and the Victory plan. He was betting too much and categorically on it. And now, when there is neither permission nor approval of the "victory plan," it looks like a serious defeat for the president," the source said, according to TASS.

In his opinion, "if, moreover, the military situation for the Armed Forces of Ukraine deteriorates even more, then domestic political problems for the Ukrainian authorities may start to snowball."

The interlocutor of the publication noted that opposition Ukrainian forces close to the West "have long been promoting the line in the West that Zelensky is too authoritarian and corrupt to lead the country to Europe."

"In such conditions, stopping the war along the front line may not be the worst scenario for Bankova, despite all its political painfulness for the president," the source said.

At the same time, he admitted, there are no signs that the authorities are beginning to prepare society for a change of scenario.

For his part, Ukrainian political analyst Andrei Zolotarev believes that against the backdrop of Zelensky's unsuccessful trip to the United States, the opposition will once again raise the topic of presidential elections or the creation of a "government of people's trust."

"But Zelensky and [head of the president's office Andriy] Yermak will definitely not go for it. However, they must do something to "switch attention," the expert believes.

As reported, Zelensky on September 26 met in He met with the head of the White House, Joe Biden, having stated earlier that he intends to discuss with him a certain plan to end the conflict, a "victory plan", since there are points in it that depend on Washington's decision. As explained by the adviser to the head of the office of the Ukrainian president Sergey Leshchenko, the essence of Zelensky's ideas was to increase pressure on Russia, including through strikes with long-range weapons, and to achieve the start of negotiations on the Ukrainian scenario, that is, on the so-called peace formula. However, the president, in fact, admitted that he left the United States without permission to strike deep into the Russian Federation with Western weapons. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken limited himself to stating that the United States would study the plan proposed by Kiev.

Moscow has repeatedly criticized the so-called peace formula promoted by Kiev as unrealistic and pointed out the need to take into account the realities on earth. Russian President Vladimir Putin named the conditions for resolving the conflict, among them the withdrawal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Donbass and Novorossiya, Kiev's refusal to join NATO. In addition, Russia considers it necessary to lift all Western sanctions against it and establish a non-aligned and nuclear-free status of Ukraine.