Zelenskyy calls Trump approach to peace talks 'not fair' as he warns of what Ukrainians 'will never forgive'
President Trump said ahead of the latest peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow this week that “Ukraine better come to the table, fast”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Donald Trump's repeated insistence that Ukraine make concessions for peace is "not fair".
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President Trump said ahead of the latest peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow this week that “Ukraine better come to the table, fast”.
The 28-point peace plan drawn up by the United States and Russian negotiators called for Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the Donbas region, including towns that haven't been captured by the Russian army, which Zelenskyy has said would be unacceptable for the Ukrainian people.
The Ukrainian leader said that it was “not fair” for Trump to pressure only Ukraine and not Russia.
“Emotionally, people will never forgive this. Never. They will not forgive … me, they will not forgive [the US],” he told Axios.
Read more: Zelenskyy reveals US deadline for end of Russia-Ukraine war
His comments come ahead of a second day of peace talks in Geneva.
The US president has twice suggested that it's up to Kyiv to ensure discussions with Moscow are successful.
Expectations for any breakthroughs in the scheduled two days of talks in Switzerland were low, with neither side apparently ready to budge from their positions on key territorial issues and future security guarantees, despite the United States setting a June deadline for a settlement.
The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Rustem Umerov, posted photos on social media of the three delegations at a horseshoe-shaped table, with the Ukrainian and Russian officials sitting across from each other.
US envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Mr Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, sat at the head of the table in front of US, Russian, Ukrainian and Swiss flags.
"The agenda includes security and humanitarian issues," Mr Umerov said, adding that Ukrainians will work "without excessive expectations".
Mr Zelenskyy added on Tuesday: "Yesterday’s meetings were indeed difficult, and we can state that Russia is trying to drag out negotiations that could already have reached the final stage."
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov cautioned against expecting developments on the first day of talks on Tuesday as they were set to continue on Wednesday. Moscow has provided few details of previous talks.
Ukraine's short-handed army is locked in a war of attrition with Russia's bigger forces along the roughly 750-mile front line. Ukrainian civilians are enduring Russian aerial barrages that repeatedly knock out power and destroy homes.
The future of the almost 20 per cent of Ukrainian land that Russia occupies or still covets is a central question in the talks, as are Kyiv's demands for post-war security guarantees with a US backstop to deter Moscow from invading again.