'BIDEN'S DECISION'
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has said Biden is eager to discuss Zelenskyy's "comprehensive strategy for success in this war" against Russia.
Zelenskyy said his plan consists of a small number of points and that "all these points depend on Biden's decision, not Putin's".
On Friday, the leader said the steps involved establishing Ukraine's place in the world's "security architecture", battlefield decisions including the Kursk operation, bolstering Ukraine's armoury and supporting the economy.
Oleksandr Kovalenko, a Ukrainian military analyst, said Zelenskyy might press for longer-term assurances of aid into 2025 and seek some kind of declaration of post-Biden continuity in support.
"This will be a very important moment. Perhaps in some ways, in a political and military-political sense, it will be a pivotal moment," he said.
Zelenskyy is almost certain to repeat his call on Biden to authorise long-range strikes into Russia, a move Moscow has said would make NATO members direct participants in the war and elicit a response.
Ukraine wants to strike military installations up to 300 km (186 miles) inside Russia, such as airfields that host attack helicopters and warplanes used to fire glide bombs. Washington has said it does not see the easing of those restrictions as a battlefield game-changer.
Russia, which occupies 18% of Ukrainian territory, has been on the offensive since last October and in August chalked up its fastest sustained recent month of advances.
Ukraine's toehold in Russia's Kursk region could serve as a bargaining chip at talks or as an insurance policy against any outside push to freeze the war along current lines. But Kyiv would have to hold the territory amid serious manpower challenges against a much larger foe.
Meanwhile, Russia has been making progress towards the transport hub of Pokrovsk. Its capture could wreak havoc with Ukrainian logistics and open up new lines of attack.
Kovalenko said Russia likely wanted to capture Pokrovsk by the year-end.
"That would allow them... to strengthen pressure on the information front to catalyse thoughts of peace negotiations, naturally on their terms," he said.
CHALLENGES
Ukraine hopes to advance a blueprint for peace at a second international summit later this year and says Russia will be invited at the request of other participants. The first one in Switzerland pointedly shunned Moscow in June and was skipped by China and chunks of the Global South.
Zelenskiy says his summit initiative is the only viable peace format and this month slammed as "destructive" a Chinese-Brazilian proposal that calls for "de-escalating the situation" and the resumption of direct dialogue without requiring Russia to pull back.
Ukraine faces its toughest winter of the 2-1/2 year war yet after Russian strikes damaged a huge chunk of energy producing capacity.
The government also faces mounting economic challenges, and plans its first wartime tax hikes to cover a funding gap of about $12.2 billion for its army this year.
Opinion polls paint a mixed picture.
Some 32% of Ukrainians were open, as of May 2024, to certain territorial concessions to end the war, up from 10% in May 2022, said Anton Hrushetskyi, executive director of Kyiv-based pollster KIIS. But most of them envisioned an arrangement that would postpone the liberation of territory rather than abandon it for good, he added.
The key demand for any peace deal is the need for firm security guarantees such as NATO membership, he said.
"Despite negative trends, Ukrainians are still optimistic enough and believe for a better future - and hope this future will be in the European Union and with finally adequate security guarantees."