Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hinted in a private meeting on Tuesday that Ukraine may be forced to make concessions if the situation on the battlefield continues to get worse.
In a closed-door meeting with members of his Servant of the People Party, Zelensky was reported to have warned that if the military situation on the front lines continues to deteriorate, Ukraine would be forced to make "difficult decisions."
While Zelensky, according to reports in Ukrainian media, continued to assure the members of his party that the front line was holding, the admission that Ukraine may be forced into a difficult situation or that the war is not going in Ukraine’s favor is a marked departure by Zelensky from his usual optimistic comments about how well the war is going for Ukraine. Up until Donald Trump was sworn into office in January, nearly three years into his war with Russia, Zelensky — who walked away from a favorable peace proposal in April 2022 at the advice of former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson — took a public position that Ukraine would only negotiate if Russian troops withdrew from Ukraine’s pre-2014 territory, including Crimea, and if Russian President Vladimir Putin and other political and military leaders were handed over for war crimes trials.
It wasn’t until this spring that Zelensky, after his infamous Oval Office meeting with Trump, finally agreed to support the proposal for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire, something Russia never supported.
In the meeting, Zelensky did contend that Ukraine needed to continue to hold the front line to have the strongest position possible at negotiations. However, with Ukraine steadily losing ground and with Washington no longer fully committed to Ukraine, the longer Zelensky waits the worse his hand may be.
In a move that may have been to appease hardliners in the room, Zelensky stated that any final major steps would require approval from parliament (the Verkhovna Rada) and the Cabinet of Ministers, which seemed to hint that he would not make any decisions unilaterally.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, stated that Zelensky “will have to make a deal,” which appeared to be Trump telling Zelensky he would need to make concessions.