Zelensky bemoans US pressure to make further concessions to Russia as Geneva peace talks stall

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that he is coming under unfair levels of pressure from US President Donald Trump to make further concessions to Russia in order to bring about an end to the war in Ukraine. 

In an interview with US news outlet Axios on Tuesday, Zelensky warned that simply handing Russia victory in Ukraine due to its greater size and resources would not result in a lasting peace, and lamented the fact that Trump had twice demanded Zelensky make further concessions in the past few days, adding “I hope it is just his tactics and not the decision,” Axios reported.

As the second day of talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US began in Geneva on Wednesday, the parties appear to have reached an impasse, largely due to the uncompromising position of Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky, Axios reported, citing sources with knowledge of Tuesday’s negotiations, which Russian news agency TASS described as “tense”.

During the Tuesday talks, which lasted for six hours, the US proposed that Ukraine withdraw its army from Donbas and that the territory become a “free economic zone”, something that Zelensky told Axios he would be willing to discuss if the Russian army retreated the same distance from the front.

One source said that the Russian side had complained that public statements made by Zelensky suggested he wasn’t negotiating in good faith and was instead attempting to “boost his popularity” domestically ahead of possible presidential elections in Ukraine.

On the subject of calling a general election, Zelensky said that the Russian delegation had so far only agreed to a one-day ceasefire to allow an election to take place in Ukraine, rather than the minimum 60-day ceasefire Kyiv believes is necessary to hold a nationwide vote. He likewise argued that the Russian position was “absurd”, and an indication that Moscow was not interested in securing a genuine peace deal. 

Zelensky also told Axios that he had instructed his team to “raise the issue” of him having a face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin, which he said he thought would be the best way to “achieve a breakthrough on the issue of territories”.

Medinsky, according to Zelensky, is fond of discussing what the Kremlin refers to as the “historical roots” of the war in Ukraine — a hodgepodge of historical grievances, wildly exaggerated accounts of Ukrainian far-right extremist sentiment and lingering fury at the end of the Soviet empire. “We don't have time for all this shit,” Zelensky told Axios. “So we have to decide, and have to finish the war.”