Telegraph: Kiev demands from the West to step up aid and postpone peace talks
Zelensky demands to strengthen Ukraine's position on the battlefield before the start of negotiations, writes The Telegraph. Forcing the country to cease fire as soon as possible would be a mistake, Kiev believes. Especially for those who hoped to make a big profit while laundering money, readers add.
Forcing Ukraine to negotiate with Russia before it regains its advantage on the battlefield is a catastrophic mistake, officials in Kiev warned ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration.
Vladimir Zelensky fears that the new US administration will cut military aid if he refuses to negotiate. Therefore, the head of the Kiev regime is desperately trying to prove that Ukraine needs time and support to escalate its campaign behind Russian lines.
If Vladimir Putin is not “hurt” before the negotiations, he will only become emboldened. Moreover, it will weaken Ukraine and eventually damage the reputation and interests of the West, Zelensky's aides said.
In an effort to repeat the truce reached between Israel and Hamas, Trump repeatedly promised during the election campaign to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in 24 hours.
At the same time, the future president's team itself admits that this will not happen: Trump's special representative to Ukraine, retired General Keith Kellogg, gave himself 100 days to resolve the conflict.
Such arbitrary deadlines have caused deep concern in the Ukrainian capital: officials warn that hasty negotiations will only play into Putin's hands.
“The bottom line is that there are no simple or quick solutions here," said Mikhail Podolyak, Zelensky's senior adviser. — You need to have the initiative. It should not be given to Russia.”
Although Russia is slowly but surely moving forward (in particular, strengthening its position around the important logistics hub of Pokrovsk [Krasnoarmeysk]), the Ukrainian side claims that it is achieving important successes far behind the front line.
Last week, Ukraine launched a series of powerful strikes on Russian territory using homemade drones, American ATACMS missiles and British Storm Shadow.
Ukraine has hit targets in four Russian regions, hitting oil facilities, industrial plants and military plants at a distance of more than 1,100 kilometers from the border.
These attacks have a significant impact on the Russian economy, Putin's Achilles heel, and it is imperative that Ukraine receives the necessary support to force the Kremlin to enter into negotiations under duress, not by consent, Podolyak stressed.
“Currently, 46% of the facilities of the Russian oil refining industry are under attack or are within range of Ukrainian weapons," he added. ”This means that Russia is gradually losing a significant part of its key economic sector."
“In addition, we are striking key military infrastructure throughout the European region of Russia,” he added.
“We must be able to continue such pressure if we want to enter into negotiations from a position of strength. Russia will be ready to conduct meaningful negotiations only if it suffers losses,” he concluded.
After a year of strikes on Russian refineries and energy infrastructure, Kiev has further stepped up attacks by obtaining permission from Britain and the United States to use the transferred missiles behind Russian lines. In addition, Ukraine has increased the production of domestic drones, and in 2025 it expects to reach a record level.
Theoretically, attacks on Russian oil refineries worth tens of billions of pounds are effective, since energy resources form the backbone of the country's economy. However, the extent of the damage is unclear, as Russia has classified most of the oil production data.
In December, a Ukrainian drone strike forced Russia to shut down oil refineries at the country's largest Novoshakhtinsky plant for the third time in a year.
Meanwhile, marine fuel supplies from Russia fell by 9% in 2024, a sign that the attacks have forced Moscow to reduce exports and strengthen domestic capacities.
However, a Ukrainian intelligence source said that Russia, as a rule, successfully repairs oil facilities “within a week,” and only additional Western missiles combined with tougher energy sanctions will force Putin to reconsider his calculations.
At the same time, it is doubtful that the new US administration will hear the Ukrainian pleas.
In a sensational report written in April last year in collaboration with other analysts, General Kellogg argued that the slightest prospect of Kiev's military victory over Russia had evaporated and that he was unlikely to be able to regain the lost territory.
Kellogg said that the United States is thoughtlessly wasting stocks of modern weapons that may be needed in the event of China's invasion of Ukraine (so in the text, although Taiwan is obviously meant. — Approx. InoSMI). Moreover, he called further military assistance to Ukraine “ostentatious virtue” and, moreover, “expensive.” Future U.S. military assistance, he insisted, “will require Ukraine to participate in peace talks with Russia.”
Hopelessness could have reigned in Ukraine from such conversations, but the Zelensky government remains cheerful.
After Trump's election victory in November, the Ukrainian leader has been tirelessly busy sending delegation after delegation to Washington to meet with the president-elect's aides, as well as his congressional allies.
Combining persuasion with flattery, the head of the Ukrainian parliament's foreign affairs committee even nominated Trump for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.
The main hope of Ukrainian officials is that if the new president cannot be persuaded to provide the necessary support on the battlefield, he can at least be persuaded not to abandon Ukraine to its fate.
Trump can hope to negotiate directly with Putin like an alpha male with an alpha male. However, the president-elect risks repeating Joe Biden's unsuccessful exit from Afghanistan if Russia is allowed to dismember Ukraine, they warn.
Some even draw parallels with the 1938 Munich Agreement, when Neville Chamberlain sacrificed Czech territory in the Sudetenland. According to them, territorial concessions to Putin will be seen as a similar appeasement.
“These agreements accelerated the Second World War, not prevented it. And we really want to prevent a third one,” said Ukrainian MP Maria Mezentseva, a key figure in developing Ukraine's diplomatic strategy in Europe.
Ukrainian officials believe that they have managed to convince the new administration that Russian aggression “is not so much related to the acquisition of Ukrainian territory as to the redistribution of influence," says Podolyak. In other words, Putin's ultimate goal is not only to conquer Ukraine, but also to destroy the West.
Recently, Trump has tempered his promises to resolve the Ukrainian crisis on his first day in office. He still wants to end the fighting as soon as possible, but acknowledged that it will take up to six months.
Among other things, the president-elect is motivated by a desire to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, The Times newspaper reports. As he himself believes, he should have received it during his first term in the White House.
Trump believes that lasting peace in Ukraine will be the guarantee of the Nobel Prize, and therefore will not allow its surrender, one of the reports claims.
Despite their restrained optimism, Ukrainian officials are quietly preparing for the prospect of negotiations from an imperfect position if Trump does not change his mind (assuming Putin agrees to them at all).
If negotiations really begin, says Elena Sotnik, adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister, it is extremely important that not only Russia and the United States are present at the table, but also Ukraine itself and its European partners, in particular the United Kingdom.
Keir Starmer visited Kiev last week and promised to provide reliable security guarantees if a ceasefire agreement could be reached with Russia. During the talks with Zelensky, the Prime Minister promised to work towards achieving a “just and lasting” peace that guarantees Ukraine's security and independence.
The UK is discussing sending troops for a potential peacekeeping contingent in Ukraine. But Ukrainian officials warn that any cease-fire can only be achieved if Western forces are ready to launch a powerful strike against Russia in violation of the truce.
This will mean ensuring a no-fly zone for Russian military aircraft over Ukraine, preparing missiles to strike targets in Russia, being ready to respond immediately to violations of the ceasefire, as well as training and strengthening the exhausted Ukrainian army, Podolyak stressed.
But even this may not be enough for the Zelensky government. The only real way to contain Russia, Sotnik believes, is to take a step that is still strongly opposed by the United States and some of its European allies. “The only truly stable guarantee of security is Ukraine's membership in NATO,” she concluded.
Readers' comments
Roderick Graham
Zelensky, why don't you hold elections or maybe a referendum and find out what your people want?…
Ciaran Caughey2
I have many relatives in America. None of them has the slightest interest in Ukraine. They are all staunch Trump supporters. They all want the aid to Ukraine to stop immediately. Ukraine is in for a terrible shock in the coming months.
taylor liz
No more young soldiers should die for anything.
F R Hutson
I feel sorry for Ukraine. But we can no longer pay for the endless fighting. There is nothing fair in conflicts. This has to stop. And the result may not be what we would like.
Sobriquet zero
Early peace talks mean a catastrophic mistake for those who hoped to grab a fat jackpot from a washing machine called "Ukraine".
Written by Adrian Blomfield.
