Posted on 02/17/2026 6:06:39 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
The Ukrainian public would not accept Kyiv simply handing over the country’s Donbas region to Russia in a peace deal, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday — advising US envoys against continually pushing a version of peace the war’s victims would see as an “unsuccessful story.”
“Emotionally, people will never forgive this. Never. They will not forgive … me, they will not forgive [the US],” Zelensky told Axios, speaking as US, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Geneva. “This is part of our country, all these citizens, the flag, the land.”
The president said it was “not fair” that President Trump has called on Ukraine — and not Russia — to make concessions to reach a peace deal.
Any change to the country’s recognition of its land would require a referendum approved by the Ukrainian people, according to Kyiv’s constitution.
Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have been working to rapidly seal a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine that would see Kyiv give up even the roughly 15% to 20% of the Donbas that it still controls, turning it into a “free economic zone.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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They really don’t have much choice in the matter.
Fine, keep killing each other. Neither side wants to give an inch.
CC
I guess he wants to give up all of Ukraine eventually.
Words can’t express how little I care that the citizens of another country will never forgive me for not forking my hard-earned money over to them.
Makes sense. Think Robert Shaw in “Battle of the Bulge”.
“This war can go on!”
Continue losing is always an option.
Ask me if I care if they don’t.
Give it up with or without bloodshed...your choice. So tiresome. Worst war in a long time. Been going on years and yet we seem to know less about than ever. So much for the information age.
You can’t cede what you lost already. Russia occupies about 85% of the Donbas. What he wants is for the US to tell Russia to give it back.
Seems like they stopped covering the war after the Russians failed to seize Kyiv.
No one cares about the Donbass.
Zelensky needs a history lesson in...”To the victor goes the spoils”...and that’s from the beginning of time.
So?
“Zelensky needs a history lesson in...”To the victor goes the spoils”...and that’s from the beginning of time.”
Since summer 2022 Russia has been in a strategic withdrawal having given up almost 40% of the territory they captured in 2022.
There is talk today that the negotiations in Geneva had a US contingent, a Russian contingent, and two separate Ukraine negotiating teams.
Further, the British, who were then joined by the French and Germans, sent teams to the talks, uninvited (though apparently Zelensky begged them to come).
This is speculated as evidence of disagreement within the Ukraine government, and comes following a Kremlin proposal this past weekend for a UN temporary governance of Ukraine, to deal with Zelensky’s expired term.
Well, I guess we'll just have to live with that.
Zelensky should of thought of that before they shelled and raped and pillaged their way through the people there. Should ask the Donbass what they want, not like it matters at this point anyways, Russia isn’t about to let it go.
Russia has been withdrawing?? That makes no sense at all...They have bitten off a little more each year.
“Russia has been withdrawing?? That makes no sense at all...They have bitten off a little more each year”
That is what the Putinistas call it. A strategic withdrawal.
I call it retreating.
However, they will forgive Zelensky, he thinks, for the useless slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians.
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