Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused President Donald Trump of applying excessive pressure on his country while attempting to broker an end to the conflict with Russia that has raged for nearly four years.
Speaking with Axios in a Tuesday interview, Zelenskyy criticized Trump’s public approach of demanding concessions from Ukraine rather than Russia during ongoing peace negotiations.
“It’s not fair,” Zelenskyy told Axios, referring to Trump’s repeated public calls for Ukraine to make compromises in the peace process.
The Ukrainian leader expressed hope that Trump’s stance represents “just his tactics and not the decision,” according to the interview, which took place while diplomatic representatives from Russia, Ukraine, and the United States were meeting in Geneva.
Trump has recently made several public statements placing responsibility on Ukraine to ensure successful negotiations. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One Monday, Trump declared, “Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you.”
According to Axios, Zelenskyy suggested that applying pressure to Ukraine may simply be more convenient than pressuring Russia.
Despite his criticism, Zelenskyy expressed gratitude to Trump for his peacemaking initiatives and noted that his discussions with senior U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have been more respectful.
“We respect each other,” Zelenskyy said of those conversations, adding that he is “not such a person” who would easily surrender under pressure.
Regarding territorial concessions, Zelenskyy firmly rejected any proposal that would grant Russia control over the entire Donbas region, where Moscow currently occupies approximately 88 percent of the territory.
“Emotionally, people will never forgive this. Never. They will not forgive… me, they will not forgive (the United States),” Zelenskyy explained, emphasizing that Ukrainian citizens “can’t understand why” they would be expected to surrender more land.
“This is part of our country, all these citizens, the flag, the land,” he stated.
Instead, Zelenskyy advocated for maintaining current battle lines, telling Axios: “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.”
