Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyyy has rejected any ceasefire deal that would require Ukraine to withdraw from strategic territory, warning that such a move would weaken the country and embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking in an interview with BBC at the government headquarters in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said he was firmly opposed to paying what he described as the price Moscow is demanding for a halt in fighting — namely, Ukrainian withdrawal from ground that Russian forces have failed to capture despite heavy losses.
Putin, Zelenskyy said, has already triggered a global conflict in all but name.
“I believe that Putin has already started it [World War 3 - ed.]. The question is how much territory he will be able to seize and how to stop him... Russia wants to impose on the world a different way of life and change the lives people have chosen for themselves," Zelenskyy said.
Moscow has demanded that Ukraine hand over the roughly 20% of the eastern Donetsk region still under Kyiv’s control — a defensive belt of towns Ukrainian officials refer to as “fortress cities” — as well as additional territory in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Asked whether conceding such land might be a reasonable price for peace, Zelenskyy rejected the premise.
He argued that even if territorial concessions temporarily satisfied the Kremlin, they would only provide Moscow with time to regroup.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly said Ukraine can win the war. In the interview, he defined victory not only as restoring normal life and ending the bloodshed, but as halting what he described as a broader global threat emanating from the Kremlin.
Pressed on whether victory necessarily meant regaining all occupied territory, Zelenskyy insisted that restoring Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders remained the ultimate objective, though not at any cost.
He acknowledged that Ukraine currently lacks sufficient weapons to mount such an effort, noting that its capabilities depend heavily on international partners.
Among Kyiv’s latest requests to Washington is permission to manufacture American weapons under licence, including Patriot air defence missiles. Zelenskyy described air defence as Ukraine’s most pressing challenge and said partners have so far declined to grant licences for domestic production of such systems.
Turning to relations with the United States, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was seeking long-term security guarantees that would outlast individual political leaders. Asked whether he could trust US President Donald Trump to uphold such commitments, he stressed that Kyiv’s focus was on institutional guarantees from Washington rather than personal assurances.
Zelenskyy added that firm security guarantees would need to be in place before he could consider another US demand — that Ukraine hold a general election by the summer — a call that echoes Russian claims that he is an illegitimate president. He noted that no similar demand has been made of Russia, where Putin first came to power at the end of 1999.
By Sabina Mammadli
