“What does Ukraine want? Peace? Yes. At any cost? No. We want an end to the war but not the end of Ukraine.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it in a 21-minute New Year address, delivered from his office late Wednesday with a New Year tree behind him. He wore a dark green embroidered Ukrainian shirt. The Ukrainian president told viewers that nearly four years of war had worn people down, and that exhaustion should not be mistaken for defeat. “Are we tired? Very. Does this mean we are ready to surrender? Anyone who thinks so is deeply mistaken.”
He drew a hard line on the terms. Any signature “placed on weak agreements only fuel the war,” he said. “My signature will be placed on a strong agreement. And that is exactly what every meeting, every phone call, every decision is about now.” What he wanted, he said, was peace “for years,” not “for a day, a week or two months.”
Close, but not done
Zelenskyy said US-led diplomacy had brought talks near completion, including discussions held the previous weekend with President Donald Trump in Florida. “A peace agreement is 90 per cent ready, 10 per cent remains,” he said. “That 10 per cent contains everything, it is the 10 per cent that will determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe and how people will live.”
Territory is the sticking point. Russia holds around 20 per cent of Ukraine and is seeking full control of the eastern Donbas region as part of any deal. Kyiv has rejected that demand, arguing that territorial concessions would invite further aggression. Zelenskyy also said any arrangement must include guarantees that protect Ukraine’s independence and prevent new attacks.
His remarks came hours after US officials, among them special envoy Steve Witkoff, met Ukrainian and European security advisers to discuss steps toward ending the war.
In a separate New Year video on X, Zelenskyy repeated the message and added a line about the other side. Russia, he said, “did not understand who Ukrainians are” through all these years.
Moscow’s answer
Vladimir Putin used his own New Year’s Eve address to tell Russians to believe in victory. Speaking to soldiers he called “heroes,” he said: “We believe in you and our victory.”
The Kremlin said it would “toughen” its negotiating position after accusing Ukraine of drone attacks near Putin’s residence in the Novgorod region. Moscow called the alleged incident a “personal” and “terrorist attack.” Publicly available evidence has not backed up the claim.
