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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that his people would reject any peace deal requiring Ukraine to unilaterally withdraw from the eastern Donbas region and turn it over to Russia, warning that "emotionally, people will never forgive this."
"This is part of our country, all these citizens, the flag, the land," Zelenskyy told Axios in an interview Tuesday as Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met for a third round of direct talks in Geneva.
"They will not forgive me, they will not forgive (the U.S.)," he added.
Zelenskyy said U.S. mediators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner told him Russia genuinely wants to end the war and advised him to coordinate with his negotiating team on that basis. However, the Ukrainian leader made clear he is "much more pessimistic."
He advised Witkoff and Kushner not to try to force him to sell a vision of peace his own people would see as an "unsuccessful story."
Zelenskyy said it was "not fair" that U.S. President Donald Trump kept publicly calling on Ukraine, not Russia, to make concessions for peace.
"I hope it is just his tactics and not the decision," Zelenskyy said, contending that while it might be easier for Trump to pressure Ukraine than Russia, the way to create lasting peace is not "to give victory" to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump said twice in recent days that the onus was on Zelenskyy to make concessions.
However, Zelenskyy thanked Trump for his peacemaking efforts and said his private conversations with Kushner and Witkoff don't involve the kind of pressure Trump uses publicly. "We respect each other," he said, adding he was "not such a person" who folds easily under pressure.
Zelenskyy noted that Washington and Kyiv have agreed that any deal must be put to the Ukrainian people in a referendum.
If the deal involves Ukraine simply pulling out of Donbas—sacrificing sovereignty and the citizenship of residents there—he believes it would be voted down.
"Ukrainians can't understand why they would be asked to give up additional land," Zelenskyy said.
However, if the deal simply freezes the current battle lines in Donbas, as planned in two other regions where Russia holds territory, Zelenskyy thinks Ukrainians would accept it.
"I think that if we put in the document that we stay where we stay on the contact line, I think that people will support this in a referendum. That is my opinion," he said.
But Russia insists it will take the full Donbas either through talks or by force.
U.S. mediators have proposed that Ukrainian forces withdraw from parts of Donbas they currently hold, allowing the area to become a demilitarized "free economic zone."
Washington has not taken a position on which country would hold sovereignty there.
Zelenskyy is prepared to discuss a troop withdrawal but has called for Moscow to pull its troops back an equivalent distance and rejected Russia's claim to sovereignty over the zone.
He claimed that in the second round of talks, Russian officials promised to consult with Moscow and return with a detailed position on the territorial question.
The third round of trilateral talks continued on Wednesday in Geneva.
Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov announced that consultations are being held in political and military groups.
"We are working to clarify the parameters and mechanisms of the solutions discussed yesterday. We are focused on substantive work. We will report the results later," Umerov wrote on social media.
Tuesday's negotiations lasted more than four hours.
However, while the military group continued making progress, negotiations in the political group were "stuck" due to positions presented by Russian delegation leader Vladimir Medinsky, two sources with knowledge told Axios.
Russians also complained about Zelenskyy's recent public statements, claiming the Ukrainian president wasn't seriously negotiating but rather trying to boost his popularity domestically ahead of possible elections.
Zelensky expressed concern that the Russian delegation, now led by Putin adviser Vladimir Medinsky, may try to turn the talks into a meet-and-greet or return to square one to buy more time on the battlefield.
He noted that, like Putin, Medinsky likes to philosophize about the "historical roots" of the war.
"We don't have time for all this shit. So we have to decide, and have to finish the war," Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy reiterated that the best way to find a breakthrough on the territory is for Putin to meet him face to face and said he told his team to raise a future leader-level meeting in Geneva.
Separately, Zelenskyy announced Ukraine has imposed sanctions on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for supporting Russia's war effort.
"More than 3,000 Belarusian enterprises have been put at the service of Russia's war and supply machinery, equipment, and components categorized as critically important, including components for the production of missiles that terrorize our cities and villages," Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
He accused Lukashenko of allowing Russia to deploy the Oreshnik intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile system on Belarusian territory and claimed Russia established a center in Belarus in 2025 for directing attack drones used against Ukraine.
"Alexander Lukashenko has long been trading Belarus's sovereignty for the continuation of his personal power," Zelenskyy said, adding that, "There will be special consequences for this."
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