Ukraine expressed frustration with its ongoing peace talks with Russia and the US this week, saying US stress was too one-sided in opposition to it.
“As of in the present day, we can’t say that the end result is enough,” Zelenskyy informed Ukrainians in a Wednesday night video tackle.
Earlier than Wednesday’s talks in Geneva had begun, Zelenskyy informed Axios information service that ceding the remaining one-fifth of the jap Donetsk area that Russia doesn’t management, as Moscow has demanded, wouldn’t be accepted by Ukrainians.
“Emotionally, folks won’t ever forgive this. By no means. They won’t forgive … me, they won’t forgive [the US],” Zelenskyy mentioned, including that Ukrainians “can’t perceive why” they might be requested to surrender extra land.
Russia presently controls about 19 p.c of Ukraine, down from 26 p.c in March 2022.
Final month, 54 p.c of surveyed Ukrainians informed the Kyiv Worldwide Institute of Sociology they categorically reject transferring the entire of the Donetsk area to Russian management, even in return for robust safety ensures, with solely 39 p.c accepting the proposal.
Two-thirds of respondents additionally mentioned they didn’t consider the present US-sponsored peace negotiations would result in lasting peace.
As an alternative of ceding land now, Zelenskyy favours freezing the present line of contact as a pretext for a ceasefire and territorial negotiations.
“I believe that if we’ll put within the doc … that we keep the place we keep on the contact line, I believe that folks will help this [in a] referendum. That’s my opinion,” he informed Axios.
Blaming Ukraine
US President Donald Trump informed Reuters final month that Ukraine, not Russia, was holding up a peace deal.
However Zelenskyy mentioned it was “not honest” that Trump was placing public stress on Ukraine to simply accept Russian phrases, including, “I hope it’s simply his ways.”
US senators visiting Odesa final week agreed with him, saying they need their authorities to place extra stress on Russia.
“No person, actually no one, believes that Russia is performing in good religion within the negotiations with our authorities and with the Ukrainians. And so stress turns into the important thing,” mentioned Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
Russia unleashed a barrage of 396 assault drones and 29 missiles on Ukraine’s power infrastructure on the day of the Geneva talks, its second large-scale blow in six days. On February 12, one other assault had left 100,000 households with out electrical energy, and three,500 residence buildings with out warmth in Kyiv alone.
“Russia greets with a strike even the very day new codecs start in Geneva – trilateral and bilateral with the US,” mentioned Zelenskyy in a video tackle. “This very clearly reveals what Russia needs and what it’s really intent on.”
Zelenskyy has repeatedly requested Western allies to cease Russian power gross sales that circumvent sanctions, and to cease exporting parts to 3rd nations, which re-export them to Russia’s armaments trade.
Russia is believed to be utilizing a shadow fleet estimated at between 400 and 1,000 oil tankers to hold and promote its crude oil. France has seized two of these tankers, and the US seized a second tanker on Monday.
The US Senate has held off voting on a sanctions invoice that has 85 p.c help due to opposition from Trump. The invoice would impose secondary sanctions on patrons of Russian oil – notably India and China.
Can Russia take Donetsk anyway?
Russia has fought since 2014 to grab the 2 jap areas of Ukraine, which triggered its invasion – Luhansk and Donetsk – the place it claimed a Russian-speaking inhabitants was being persecuted by the federal government in Kyiv.
Late final 12 months, Russia managed to grab all of Luhansk, however analysts consider it’s uncertain that it may take the rest of Donetsk with out severe losses, as a result of Ukraine has closely fortified a sequence of cities within the western a part of the area.
That activity has now change into even more durable, in accordance with observers, since Russia this month misplaced entry to Starlink terminals, which helped it talk, fly its drones and coordinate correct counter-battery hearth.
As Russian floor assaults have faltered, Ukraine has seized the initiative to make positive factors in Dnipropetrovsk, mentioned Ukrainian navy observer Konstantyn Mashovets.
Ukrainian forces gained 201sq km of territory from Russian occupation forces between February 11 and 15, in accordance with observers, reportedly their quickest advance since a 2023 counteroffensive.
Russia has been making an attempt to interchange Starlink utilizing stratospheric balloons, reported Ukrainian Defence Ministry adviser Serhiy “Flash” Beskrestnov.
Russia would possible take six months to interchange Starlink, mentioned a Ukrainian unmanned programs commander, providing Ukrainian forces a window to roll again Russian advances.
It additionally suffered 31,680 casualties in January, estimated Ukraine’s Normal Workers – a sustainable quantity given Russian recruitment ranges of about 40,000 a month. However these numbers would rise within the occasion of a significant assault on the rest of Donetsk, specialists say.
“Our aim is to have a minimum of 50,000 confirmed enemy losses each month,” mentioned Ukrainian Minister of Defence Mykhailo Fedorov on February 12, echoing a aim set by Zelenskyy final month.
Fedorov has got down to improve the manufacturing of remote-control FPV drones used on the entrance strains, which Ukraine says are actually liable for 60 p.c of all Russian casualties.
As a part of that effort, joint drone manufacturing amenities are deliberate in a number of European nations. The primary began working on February 13 in Germany, Zelenskyy informed the Munich Safety Convention, and 9 extra are deliberate.
As well as, Ukraine’s European allies pledged 38 billion euros ($44.7bn) in navy support this 12 months throughout a Ramstein format assembly – the alliance of greater than 50 nations which plans navy support for Ukraine – together with 2.5 billion euros ($2.9bn) for Ukrainian drones – “one of the crucial profitable ‘Ramsteins’,” Fedorov mentioned.
The European Union has moreover voted to borrow 90 billion euros ($106bn) to offer to Ukraine in monetary support this 12 months and subsequent.
The US stopped being a donor of navy and monetary support to Ukraine after Trump was sworn in as president in January 2025.
In opposition to Trump’s needs, the US Senate voted to spend $400m in every of the subsequent two years as a part of the Ukraine Safety Help Initiative, which pays US firms for weapons for Ukraine’s navy. Europeans have pledged to spend a minimum of 5 billion euros ($5.8bn) on US weapons this 12 months.
Europe would even be the principle contributor to a “reassurance drive” policing the road of contact after a ceasefire, and on Ukraine’s insistence, US representatives additionally met with British, French, German, Italian and Swiss representatives earlier than the talks in Geneva.
