Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that his people would reject any peace deal requiring Kyiv to unilaterally withdraw from eastern Donbas and hand the territory to Russia, warning that such a plan would be dead on arrival in a national referendum.
Zelenskyy spoke to Axios as Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met in Geneva for a third round of direct talks. The main sticking point is control of the Donbas region, of which Ukraine still holds about 10%.
The Ukrainian leader said U.S. mediators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have told him Russia genuinely wants to end the war and urged him to coordinate with his negotiating team on that assumption. But he signaled a far more skeptical view and cautioned the mediators against pushing him to sell an outcome Ukrainians would view as an "unsuccessful story."
Zelenskyy also said it was unfair that President Donald Trump has publicly called on Ukraine — not Russia — to make concessions. While Zelenskyy acknowledged it may be easier for Trump to pressure Ukraine than the much larger Russia, he argued lasting peace can't be achieved "to give victory" to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump has said in recent days the onus is on Zelenskyy to make concessions.
"I hope it is just his tactics and not the decision," Zelenskyy told Axios.
Zelenskyy thanked Trump for pursuing peace and said his private conversations with Witkoff and Kushner do not include the kind of public pressure Trump has applied.
"We respect each other," he said, adding he was "not such a person" who folds easily.
The mediators have proposed that Ukrainian forces withdraw from the portions of Donbas they currently control and that the area become a demilitarized "free economic zone." Washington has not taken a position on sovereignty.
Zelenskyy said he is prepared to discuss a withdrawal only if Russia pulls back an equivalent distance, and he rejected Moscow's claim to sovereignty over the zone.
He noted that Washington and Kyiv agree that any deal must be put to Ukrainians in a referendum. If it requires Ukraine to abandon Donbas — sacrificing sovereignty and citizenship for people living there — he believes voters would reject it.
"Emotionally, people will never forgive this. Never," Zelenskyy said. "They will not forgive ... me, they will not forgive [the U.S.]."
He added that Ukrainians cannot understand why they would be asked to give up more land.
"This is part of our country, all these citizens, the flag, the land," Zelenskyy said.
By contrast, he suggested that Ukrainians could accept freezing current battle lines.
"I think that if we will put in the document ... that we stay where we stay on the contact line, I think that people will support this [in a] referendum," Zelenskyy said. "That is my opinion."
Talks are expected to continue Wednesday.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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