Zelenskiy Accuses Trump of Unfair Pressure in Peace Negotiations

Zelenskiy's Response to Trump's Pressure

Feb 17 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said U.S. President Donald Trump was exerting undue pressure on him in trying to secure a resolution to the nearly four-year-old war pitting Kyiv against Moscow.

Zelenskiy, in an interview with U.S. website Axios published on Tuesday, also said any plan requiring Ukraine to give up territory that Russia had not captured in the eastern Donbas region would be rejected by Ukrainians if put to a referendum.

Axios quoted Zelenskiy as saying it was "not fair" that Trump kept publicly calling on Ukraine, not Russia, to make concessions in negotiating terms for a peace plan.

Concerns Over Territorial Concessions

"I hope it is just his tactics and not the decision," Axios quoted Zelenskiy as saying in the interview, conducted by phone as Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. negotiators held talks in Geneva.

Trump has twice in recent days suggested it was up to Ukraine and Zelenskiy to take steps to ensure the talks proved successful. 

"Ukraine better come to the table fast. That's all I'm telling you," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday.

Zelenskiy, Axios said, suggested it might be easier to put pressure on Ukraine than on Russia.

He thanked Trump again for his peacemaking efforts and told Axios that his conversations with the top U.S. negotiators, envoy Steve Witkoff and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, did not involve the same kind of pressure.

"We respect each other," Axios quoted him as saying. He added that he was "not such a person" to fold easily under pressure.

Public Sentiment in Ukraine

Zelenskiy told Axios that acceding to Russia's demand to take over the entire Donbas region -- it now holds about 88 % of it -- would be unacceptable to Ukrainian voters if they were asked to consider it in a referendum.

"Emotionally, people will never forgive this. Never. They will not forgive... me, they will not forgive (the United States)," Zelenskiy said, adding that Ukrainians "can't understand why" they would be asked to give up additional land.

"This is part of our country, all these citizens, the flag, the land."

Negotiation Strategies

He called again for positions to be frozen at the current front lines of the conflict.

"I think that if we will put in the document ... that we stay where we stay on the contact line, I think that people will support this (in a) referendum," Axios quoted him as saying.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)