Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has voiced serious concerns regarding the strategy of US President Donald Trump and his administration to end the war in Ukraine. In a recent interview with Axios, Zelensky warned that Washington might increasingly pressure Kyiv into making territorial concessions, specifically demanding the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from sovereign lands, including the Donetsk region.
The Ukrainian leader revealed that recent diplomatic engagements in Miami between a Ukrainian delegation and Trump’s special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, concluded without any tangible results. According to Zelensky, once the ongoing conflict between the United States and Iran subsides, the US administration is expected to renew its pressure on Ukraine to yield territory to Russia in exchange for peace.
Expressing his apprehension, Zelensky stated: "I am sure that President Trump and his team want to end the war. My concern is that they see only one way to do it. They see no other way to stop Putin except the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from our territory. But why should we pay for this? We are not the aggressors. I am worried that no one is really assessing the danger of such a decision for our security."
Shifting the focus to the broader geopolitical landscape, Zelensky highlighted the deepening military cooperation between Moscow and Tehran. He asserted that Russia is fully backing Iran in its current conflict by providing satellite imagery of US military bases and sharing tactical expertise regarding drone warfare.
The diplomatic backdrop to these statements traces back to March 21, when Ukrainian negotiators traveled to Miami to discuss potential pathways to end the war with US representatives. Subsequently, on March 25, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi noted that while Russia continues to obstruct the peace process, the bilateral discussions in the US remained substantive.
Although trilateral negotiations are currently paused due to the outbreak of hostilities between the US and Iran, President Zelensky maintains that the diplomatic efforts have not yet reached a complete dead end.
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