IN a New Year’s Eve address to the nation, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine desires an end to the conflict but will not accept a “weak” peace agreement that risks prolonging the war or compromising the country’s sovereignty.
Speaking from his office, with a festive tree behind him, Zelenskiy emphasised that while Ukrainians are exhausted, they remain resolute in defending their nation.
“What does Ukraine want? Peace? Yes. At any cost? No. We want an end to the war but not the end of Ukraine,” Reuters cited Zelenskiy saying yesterday in the 21-minute address issued shortly before midnight.
“Are we tired? Very. Does this mean we are ready to surrender? Anyone who thinks so is deeply mistaken.”
Zelenskiy warned that signing a weak agreement would only fuel further conflict. “My signature will be placed on a strong agreement. And that is exactly what every meeting, every phone call, every decision is about now. To secure a strong peace for everyone, not for a day, a week or two months, but peace for years.”
The Ukrainian president confirmed that weeks of diplomacy, led by the United States and including talks last weekend with U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida, had produced a peace deal that was “90% ready.”
He stressed, however, that the remaining 10%—primarily the question of territorial control—will determine “the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe and how people will live.”
A central sticking point remains the control of territory in the east and south of Ukraine. Russia currently occupies roughly 19% of Ukraine, but President Vladimir Putin has demanded Kyiv withdraw from parts of the eastern Donbas region that Russian forces have failed to capture.
Ukraine, by contrast, wants the current battle lines frozen and Zelenskiy dismissed Moscow’s demands for complete withdrawal from Donbas as “deception.”
The address highlighted the stark choice facing Ukraine after nearly four years of conflict—longer than the German occupation of many Ukrainian cities during the Second World War—between pursuing a durable peace or accepting concessions that could jeopardise national sovereignty. - January 1, 2026
