For a weakened Zelensky, yielding to Trump is riskier than defiance

Buffeted by a corruption scandal that has sparked fury across Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky is in political trouble at home, weaker than at any point since the full-scale Russian invasion of his country began nearly four years ago.

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Most Ukrainians reject a surrender, and Zelensky courts crisis with his own military in case of major concessions to Russia.

(AFP)

Yet, this very vulnerability makes him even less likely to yield to the Trump administration, which is pushing a 28-point plan that was secretly drafted by White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and Kremlin adviser Kirill Dmitriev. Zelensky has described the initial text, released by Washington shortly after the corruption affair in Kyiv erupted, as forcing Ukraine to give up its dignity and freedom.

“Trump seems to repeat the mistakes that Putin already made several times, underestimating the strength of Ukrainian society and not understanding what Ukraine really is,” said Nico Lange, a former senior German defense official who is involved in European efforts to help Ukraine. “No Ukrainian president—and especially not a weakened Zelensky—has a mandate to agree to anything like this. If he does, he would not be president anymore when he comes home.”

U.S. officials led by Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio; a Ukrainian team led by Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak, who has been facing calls to resign by Ukrainian lawmakers and national-security advisers from European nations came to Geneva on Sunday to discuss the plan, which President Trump has said he wants signed by Thanksgiving.

Despite widespread weariness of war and desire for peace, Ukrainians overwhelmingly view this latest U.S.-Russian proposal as a veiled capitulation—one that isn’t justified by the situation on the battlefield, where Russia has made slow advances at a tremendous cost. While Ukrainian politicians generally support the idea of talks, none have endorsed the plan’s key demand to give up cities that Russia doesn’t control.