The Ukrainian leader hopes that with the support of Western nations, Kiev can “force Russia into a real peace”
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, who is slated to meet Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, has seemingly already rejected the terms for peace with Russia laid out by the US president.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday that Zelensky “can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight.”
According to the US president, a settlement would require “no getting back… Crimea” and “no going into NATO by Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian leader responded on X 90 minutes later, stressing his unwillingness to compromise to end hostilities.
Not Ukraine, but “Russia must end this war, which it itself started. And I hope that our joint strength with America, with our European friends, will force Russia into a real peace,” he insisted.
Zelensky then declared that “I am confident that we will defend Ukraine.”
“Of course, Crimea should not have been given up then, just as Ukrainians did not give up Kiev, Odessa, or Kharkov after 2022,” he added.
Crimea officially became part of Russia in 2014 after the peninsula’s population overwhelmingly supported the move in a referendum while Kiev prosecuted a war against its own eastern regions.
Despite refusing to make concessions, the Ukrainian leader thanked Trump for the “invite” to the White House and insisted that he and the US president “share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably.”
Zelensky is coming to Washington following Friday’s summit in Alaska between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump, at which both leaders underlined their commitment to resolving the Ukraine conflict.
Putin reiterated after the talks that eliminating the underlying causes of the fighting is the key to any settlement. According to the Russian side, for lasting peace to be achieved, Ukraine should renounce its aspiration for NATO membership, demilitarize, and recognize the current territorial realities; including the status of Crimea, as well as of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, the latter four of which voted to join Russia in 2022.
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