Zelensky reveals the painful condition imposed on Ukraine by Trump to receive security guarantees: “Unfortunately, he chooses a strategy to put more pressure on the Ukrainian side”
President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Reuters published on Wednesday that the United States administration has offered to provide security guarantees for a peace deal in Ukraine on the condition that authorities in Kiev cede to Russia the entire Donbas region, which Moscow considers a key military objective but does not fully control.
Ukrainians still control just under a quarter of Donetsk, one of the two oblasts that make up Donbas, while Luhansk is under Russian control. Even so, Kiev and military analysts estimate it could take years for Moscow's forces to conquer the entire region on the battlefield.
The Ukrainian leader said that with the US now focused on its own conflict in Iran, US President Donald Trump is pressuring Ukraine to try to end the war launched by Russia in February 2022.
“The Middle East certainly has an impact on President Trump and I think on his next steps. Unfortunately, in my opinion, President Trump continues to choose a strategy of putting more pressure on the Ukrainian side,” he told Reuters from his residential complex in Kiev.
Zelenskiy has repeatedly said that Ukraine needs robust security guarantees from international partners to ensure that Russia does not attack it again in the event of a peace deal.
“The Americans are ready to complete these high-level guarantees once Ukraine is ready to withdraw from Donbas,” the Ukrainian president also said in the interview with Reuters, arguing that such a withdrawal would compromise both his country's security and, by extension, Europe's, as it would involve giving up strong defensive positions in the region to Russia.
In January, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the document on security guarantees was “100% ready” and waiting to be signed. Instead, on Tuesday, after talks between Ukrainian and American officials in Miami, he said there was more work to be done.
Russia is counting on a US withdrawal from the talks, Zelenski believes
According to Reuters, Volodymyr Zelensky also said that Russia is betting that Washington will lose interest in talks on Ukraine and withdraw.
On Sunday, he warned that “a long war in Iran is a plus” for his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, amid the fallout from the war in the Middle East, where the United States and Israel launched an operation against Iran on February 28 and Tehran's forces and allied militias responded by striking Israel and countries in the region.
“You see that our diplomatic meetings, trilateral meetings are constantly postponed. There is only one reason: the war in Iran,” the Ukrainian leader had said in an interview with the BBC on Sunday, adding that Putin “will want a long war” in Iran.
Russian Spring Offensive
CNN reported over the weekend that Russian forces have launched a spring offensive in Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian military and analysts, and the offensive is beginning to gain momentum.
In Donetsk, part of Donbas, the Ukrainians still control just under a quarter of the territory. However, Kiev claims that a so-called urban “belt of fortresses” heavily fortified by Ukrainian forces can help it defend the region for years.
Military analysts also agree that it could take several years and significant military forces for Russia to conquer the entire Donbas on the battlefield.
Recent attacks by Russian forces have also focused on the city of Liman in Donetsk, located on the edge of the so-called fortress belt. The area has a key role in the defense of Sloviansk, a larger city.
Last week, Ukrainian authorities announced that they had begun the mandatory evacuation of children from the most attacked areas of Sloviansk, one of the main cities still under Ukrainian control in the Donbas region, in what Reuters described as a sign that the security situation in the area is deteriorating.
The Institute for the Study of War noted signals that Russian forces plan to step up ground operations in other areas of the fortress belt as well.
Zelenski thanks the United States for the Patriot missiles
Ukraine's president has thanked the Trump administration for maintaining the supply of Patriot missiles, the only ones capable of shooting down Russian ballistic missiles, despite increased demand as a result of the Middle East war.
“I am very grateful to President Trump and his team,” Zelenskiy said. “But this supply of Patriot missiles is not as large as we need,” he added.
On the other hand, Volodymyr Zelenskiy noted that Ukraine is making progress in its own production of drones and long-range missiles, which allows it to strike deep into Russian territory in retaliation for bombings launched by Moscow's forces.
