President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine is doing everything possible to achieve peace but will not accept a deal that compromises the country’s survival, in a New Year address delivered from Kyiv.
“We want the end of the war — not the end of Ukraine,” Zelensky said, adding that Ukrainians are exhausted but not prepared to surrender.
“Does that mean we are ready to surrender? Those who think so are deeply mistaken,” he added. “And clearly, over all these years, they still have not understood who Ukrainians are. A people who have held on through 1,407 days of a full-scale war. Just take in that number. That is longer than the Nazi occupation of many of our cities during World War II.”
Zelensky said a peace agreement is “90 percent ready,” but warned that the remaining issues are decisive. “Those 10% contain, in fact, everything,” he said, calling them “the ten percent that will determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe.”
He stressed that Russia has shown no genuine desire to end the war voluntarily: “Russia does not end its wars on its own. Only pressure from others — only coercion from others (works).”
Zelensky rejected proposals that Ukraine withdraw from occupied territories, calling such suggestions deceptive. “Withdraw from Donbas, and everything will be over. That is how deception sounds when translated from Russian,” he said.
The president said Ukraine would only sign a peace agreement backed by binding security guarantees: “A Budapest-style piece of paper will not satisfy Ukraine. Ukraine does not need a Minsk-style meticulously drafted trap. My signature will be under a strong agreement.”
Zelensky also emphasized the importance of continued U.S. and European support, warning that a weak deal would only fuel future war. “Signatures under weak agreements only fuel war,” he said.
Concluding his address, Zelensky said peace remains Ukraine’s ultimate goal, but it must be lasting and just: “We believe in peace, we fight for it, and we work for it.”
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