At Ukraine’s war museum in Kviv, visitors look at missile parts and other artifacts collected in Russia’s Kursk region after Ukraine’s recent incursion. Ed Ram/The Washington Post

KYIV – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will appeal to President Biden’s sense of legacy when he pitches his new “victory plan” to achieve a just peace in Ukraine, he told journalists ahead of his trip to the United States.

The plan will include requests to strengthen Ukraine’s arsenal as well as permission to strike targets deeper inside Russia, he said in the meeting late Friday at the presidential office.

“Biden can strengthen Ukraine and make important decisions for Ukraine to become stronger and protect its independence while he is the president of the United States,” Zelensky said. “I think it is a historical mission. Well, at least from the perspective of Ukraine.”

Zelensky’s visit comes at a critical moment in the war, with Ukrainian forces now controlling part of Russia’s Kursk region and Russian forces advancing on Ukraine’s east, with soldiers there describing an increasingly difficult situation.

Ukraine has recently ramped up its pleas for its Western partners to approve using long-range weapons, including U.S. ATACMS missiles and the Franco-British system known as Storm Shadows, or SCALP.

Until now, Ukraine’s partners providing the weapons have refused to grant such permission, largely citing fears that Russia would see it as a major escalation and could retaliate. Officials in Ukraine are frustrated by this argument, saying that Putin has repeatedly made such threats but that after 2½ years of full-scale war, no real red lines have been identified. Banning Ukraine from using the weapons also poses an immense danger to Western security, Kyiv has warned.

Zelensky said Ukraine needs more long-range weapons plus the green light to use them inside Russia, which has already started moving certain materiel farther from the border, probably in anticipation of potential changes to policy.

“But neither America nor the United Kingdom gave us permission to use these weapons on the territory of Russia, on any targets at any distance,” he said. “We have not used long-range weapons on the territory of the Russian Federation.”

Zelensky said Friday that he believes Biden is receiving information from his team that Russia could escalate if Western governments grant Ukraine’s request. “But, and this is important, not everyone around him thinks so,” he said. “And this is already an achievement.”

Biden’s decision “depends on many things and depends, of course, on a certain number of people. And whether he will hear our arguments,” Zelensky said. “We had some decisions in the history of our relationship with Biden, there were very interesting and difficult dialogues. He later changed his point of view.”

Zelensky said he also expects to meet the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. He described the victory plan as a series of “quick and concrete steps” to be taken by Ukraine’s partners. None of the steps would rely on the Kremlin, Zelensky said, but he believes the plan should be open and that Russia should know about it.

“Our partners often say ‘we will be with Ukraine until it wins’ – now we are clearly showing how Ukraine can win and what is needed for this. Very specific things,” Zelensky said. “Let’s do all of this today, while all the officials who want Ukraine to win are in office.”

He said that he would “see what (Harris) thinks about this victory plan” and that meeting Trump “will be important for both of us.”

“The United States will have a new president. And we need to talk to each of the candidates about their attitude to this,” Zelensky said. “I will also talk to the Congress. I need their support in this matter.”

Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Kursk last month, when its forces rolled over poorly protected Russian border posts and seized some 500 square miles, marked a significant turning point in the war. Ukraine said that the operation helped create an important buffer zone to protect the northeastern Sumy region and that the seizure of hundreds of Russian soldiers would help set up exchanges for Ukrainian soldiers in Russian prisons.

The incursion also energized Ukrainian soldiers, putting them on the offensive after many months in defensive positions.

Many fear, though, that the advance is coming at the expense of the east, especially the key supply hub of Pokrovsk. Six weeks on, it remains unclear if the gamble paid off.

A tank unit commander in Ukraine’s 68th Brigade, who spoke on the condition that he be identified only by his call sign, Physicist, said his stretch of the Pokrovsk front has somewhat stabilized in recent weeks because Russians are moving to the north and south of him.

But while Pokrovsk remains in Ukrainian control, as a logistics hub, it “can already be said to have been lost,” he said. Russian forces have succeeded in cutting off three major roads by destroying bridges, or advancing close enough to control movement with artillery and drone attacks.

“Moving has become much more difficult, transporting ammunition has become more difficult, but not impossible,” he said.

“We cannot accumulate enough forces, enough infantry units to make a counterassault,” he said. “That is, we are forced to defend ourselves all the time, and slowly – if there is no other possibility not to be surrounded or something else – slowly withdraw.”

Zelensky said that the slow drip of foreign military aid has been picking up this month but that Ukraine is still receiving less ammunition than Russia produces itself.

Troops on the ground say that although the shortages are improving, they are still at a disadvantage. “If our guys fire three or four rockets from a Grad [rocket system], the enemy fires eight,” said Dmytro, a soldier with the 28th Brigade. “It’s a constant artillery firefight all day.”

He said Russian forces have destroyed the village of Niu York, long a major flash point, and have moved into the next village, Nelipivka. He spoke on the condition of only using his first name, according to Ukrainian military protocol.

On a recent day, fighting was so intense that “I barely made it. I thought it was the end,” he said. Despite the arrival of some reinforcements, there are not enough men to fight. Many of those joining the infantry, he said, are older than 45.

“Honestly, I can’t fully understand what we’re covering now. With all the relocations, everything is unclear,” he said. “Plus, the battalions have been scattered. One is here, another is there. So, no one really knows where everyone is.”

Serhiy, 51, another soldier in the 28th Brigade, also said that the ammunition supply has improved compared with spring, although there are “never enough artillery shells.”

One of the biggest problems, however, is Russia’s continuous bombardment of the front with glide bombs, he said.

The massive, Soviet-era munitions have been fitted with wings and guidance systems and have been devastating to Ukrainian defenses – and are precisely the kinds of arms Zelensky is working to counter with Western weapons such as fighter jets and longer-range missiles.

Russian forces are set on targeting the Slovyansk Thermal Power Plant in the town of Mykolaivka, Serhiy said. If successful, they could cut electrical supply to other key towns and cities under Ukrainian control.

“We really need long-range air defense systems or aviation to scare them off,” he said. “If they keep dropping 15 to 20 bombs a day, this place will be destroyed.”