A senior Ukrainian delegation visiting Washington, D.C., this week brought a warning of Russia’s upcoming war plans on the country, urging greater pressure on Moscow to achieve a ceasefire and peace deal.
Coming off the success of an audacious drone attack against Russian warplanes on Monday, the Ukrainian delegation urged greater U.S. military assistance to Kyiv and stricter sanctions on Russia on the path to bringing the war to an end.
“I think it’s very important now to start to speak with Russia in the language of strength because it’s one language which this country understands,” Andriy Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said in a press conference Wednesday.
“It doesn’t mean that Ukraine closes the door to continue the negotiations. But it’s necessary that Russia coming to these negotiations really with the political will,” Yermak continued.
Ukraine has criticized Russia’s participation in two rounds of direct talks, most recently on Monday, as putting forward terms for ending the war amounting to Ukraine’s capitulation and surrender.
At the Ukrainian embassy on Wednesday, the delegation showed the press a presentation likely similar to what they presented to Senators and during other meetings they had in Washington. This included sharing a two-minute video showing drone video of the attack on Russian warplanes, maps of Russia’s attack plans for later this year, and also data on Russia’s limited advances on the frontline.
“The cost for every square kilometer for Russians is 167 killed in action, soldiers,” said Pavlo Palisa, deputy head of the Office of the President.
“That’s why we think that Russia is not in the position that allows them to give some ultimatums and give us nothing but act of capitulation.”
Palisa said that Russia is planning to occupy the rest of Donetsk and Luhansk regions by September 1 — territories in the east that Russia has largely occupied since 2014. He also said that Russia is planning to retake the region of Kherson and create a buffer zone by the end of 2025.
Ukrainian forces control about 30 percent of the Kherson region following an offensive to liberate the territory in November 2022. Palisa added that Russia is planning to renew its offensive on Ukraine’s southern coast, the river port city of Mykolaiv and the Black Sea port city of Odesa by the end of 2026.
“Here you can make an assessment, unfortunately they are not speaking about peace, they are preparing for war,” Palisa said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump announced he held a “good” phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but that it would not lead to peace. Trump said Putin told him Russia would respond to Ukraine’s drone attack.
But immediately after posting about his phone call with Putin, Trump also posted on Truth Social a link to a Washington Post article with the headline “Congress can give Trump the leverage to coerce Putin.” The article refers to legislation in the Senate imposing punishing sanctions on Russia and a tariff of 500 percent on countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other products.
The legislation, co-sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), has a veto-proof majority. Graham said on Wednesday that he wants to add a carve-out to the text to exempt countries from the 500 percent tariff if they have provided “meaningful” support to Ukraine, even as they maintain economic ties with the Kremlin.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, special envoy of the president for sanctions, said the sanctions bill has the potential to deny Russia $60 billion in oil revenues, and that this equals about one year of the Kremlin’s war budget.
The delegation met earlier on Wednesday with senators on Capitol Hill and with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The delegation also met with Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, on Tuesday.
Their pitch in Washington also included more calls for U.S. military support. Among the requests were more air defenses: Patriot Missile systems and Patriot interceptors. They also called for more F-16 fighter jets, air munitions, M142 HIMARS, missiles for HIMARS, howitzers, Javelin missiles, artillery rounds and armored vehicles.
Yermak said that military cooperation with the U.S. continues despite Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth skipping the Ramstein meeting in Germany on Wednesday — the conference coordinating military assistance to Ukraine among nearly 50 countries.
“We discuss next steps and during these two days [in Washington] we have the opportunity to talk to the White House, State Department and the Hill about what we need,” he said.