Zelensky: Peace Deal ‘90% Ready’—Ukraine Holds Firm as Russia Demands Donbas
In a New Year’s speech that mostly talked about fighting against Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that a peace deal to end the war is “90% ready.”
Zelensky said that the last 10% of the deal to end nearly four years of fighting would “determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his troops in his own New Year’s speech that “we believe in you and our victory.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Moscow also released what it said was proof that Ukraine used drones to attack Putin’s private home on Lake Valdai in northwestern Russia. Kyiv has strongly denied these claims.
It had a map that supposedly showed the drones being launched from the Sumy and Chernihiv regions of Ukraine, as well as a video of a downed drone lying in snowy woods. A soldier who is standing next to the wreckage says it is a Ukrainian Chaklun drone.
The BBC can’t confirm the video, and they can’t find out where it was filmed.
The Kremlin said that Russia would change its mind about the peace talks because of what happened.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, called the Russian claims a “deliberate distraction” and an attempt to stop the peace process on Wednesday.
Zelensky said in a 20-minute speech to the nation that Ukraine did not want peace “at any cost.” He also said, “We want the end of the war, not the end of Ukraine.”
He said that if Ukraine pulls out of the eastern Donbas region, “everything will be over.” This is in response to Russia’s demand that Moscow get full control of the industrial area in any peace deal.
Moscow now controls about 75% of the Donetsk region and about 99% of the Luhansk region next door. The two areas are known as Donbas.
Its fate has been a major problem during negotiations because Russia has always been unwilling to give up its goal of taking full control of Donbas.
Zelensky thanked leaders who have helped Ukraine in the speech, but he also said that “intentions must become security guarantees, and therefore – be ratified.”
Zelensky and US President Donald Trump talked in Florida earlier this week. Zelensky said that Washington had promised security for 15 years, but it is not clear when these promises will be put into action.
“Signing weak agreements only leads to war,” Zelensky said in his speech. “Either the world stops Russia’s war, or Russia drags the world into its war.”
Putin’s New Year’s speech, on the other hand, was much shorter.
Putin talked about the war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation.” He said, “We strive to bring joy and warmth through our care for those in need of support and, of course, to stand by our heroes—the participants in the special military operation—in both word and deed.”
Separately, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un used his New Year’s message to praise the “invincible alliance” between Pyongyang and Moscow and the soldiers who are fighting in “alien lands.”
South Korean officials say that North Korea has sent thousands of troops, missiles, and long-range weapons to help Russia invade.
According to estimates from South Korea, at least 600 of those soldiers have died.
Zelensky wants peace talks to start up again this month and move faster, with officials from both the US and Europe taking part.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that European countries and allies who are set to meet in Paris on January 6 “will make concrete commitments to protect Ukraine and ensure a just and lasting peace on our European continent.”
On Wednesday, Trump’s advisers talked with Zelensky and national security advisers from the UK, France, and Germany about how to end the war in Ukraine.
Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy, said they talked about “strengthening security guarantees and developing effective deconfliction mechanisms to help end the war and make sure it doesn’t start again.”
But any deal will need Russia’s approval in the end, and that doesn’t seem to be coming anytime soon. The alleged drone incident over Putin’s house may have pushed it even further away.
