The biggest obstacle to peace in the Russia-Ukraine war is not Vladimir Putin, it’s not Donald Trump, it’s only one man: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
If you think that’s heretical to say, you haven’t been paying attention.
President Donald Trump greets President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, Friday, February 28, 2025, in the West Wing Lobby. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok).
Volodymyr Zelensky: Does He Actually Want Peace for Ukraine?
The majority of Americans have understandably been rooting for Ukraine from the beginning of the war in 2022 when Russian armor flooded across the border into Ukraine on multiple axes.
About 10 days before the war started, the United States relocated its embassy and personnel to the relative safety of the western Ukrainian city of Lvov. When the Biden Administration privately offered transportation to Lvov, out of harm’s way, Zelensky captured the admiration of the Western world when he declared, “I need ammunition; not a ride.”
The Kremlin had clearly bet the farm on the hopes that large numbers of Russian tanks rolling into multiple parts of Ukraine would have forced Zelensky to flee west, his troops to recognize it was foolish to resist, and that they would have quickly submitted to Moscow’s demands.
Instead, Zelensky’s genuine charisma and courage inspired his troops to fight ferociously, totally blunting Putin’s hopes for a fait accompli.
That kind of courage and inspiration are the stuff of heroic tales and Hollywood movies – unless its divorced from reality and ultimately leads to even more catastrophic loss for the Ukrainian people.
Ukraine Could Have Had Peace
In late March of 2022, Zelensky had a golden opportunity to parlay that fierce courage and resistance into a genuine political advantage. Russia, within weeks, recognizing its field army was not as good as they suspected and that they had grossly too few to conquer Ukraine, were aggressive about finding a negotiated settlement.
On March 16, 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters that discussions with Ukraine were bearing fruit and that a “(n)eutral status (for Ukraine) is now being seriously discussed along, of course, with security guarantees.” Eleven days later, Zelensky confirmed Lavrov’s view, when he said, “Security guarantees and neutrality, non-nuclear status of our state. We are ready to go for it. This is the most important point.”
On March 29, when the Russians and Ukrainians met face-to-face in Istanbul, The Guardian optimistically headlined that “The World is Waiting for Good News.” According to David Arahamiya, one of the Ukrainian negotiators at Istanbul, the Russians were ready to end the war “if we took neutrality—as Finland once did—and made commitments that we would not join NATO. This was the key point.”
But Arahamiya said that on April 9, 2022, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson unexpectedly visited Zelensky in Kyiv and encouraged him to keep fighting instead. By October Zelensky not only killed the peace talks at Istanbul, but signed a decree that forbade Ukraine to even negotiate with Russia so long as Putin was president.
Zelensky also refused to seek a negotiated settlement in November 2022 when Ukraine was at its peek military position. Then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley strongly signaled that the time was perfect to seek negotiations because “(y)ou want to negotiate at a time when you’re at your strength, and your opponent is at weakness.” Zelensky refused, choosing instead to keep fighting so he could launch an offensive the next year.
It proved to have been the last time Zelensky could have negotiated from a position of relative strength. The 2023 offensive predictably failed, as I wrote in these pages before the operation began. Ukraine has gotten weaker and weaker since, while Russia continues to get stronger and stronger.
Zelensky has refused every opportunity to end the war through negotiations, from his refusal to implement the Minsk Accords after he assumed office in 2019 that could have prevented the war from starting. Instead choosing to continue fighting, even when there has been no viable path to success.
While Zelensky was hailed as a Churchillian figure early in the war, the cold, hard reality is that his abject refusal to take any diplomatic off-ramp that was available to him has unnecessarily cost Ukraine hundreds of thousands of its men, thousands of square kilometers of its territory, and the total destruction of scores of its cities and villages. Courage is a great trait in a leader, but without wisdom, Zelensky’s courage has not led to victory for his people, but their pointless destruction.
President Trump was elected in part because of his promise to end the Russia/Ukraine War. His every action since assuming office has reinforced that intent. With numerous rounds of negotiations with the Russians in Saudi Arabia, in shuttle diplomacy with Trump’s senior leaders, and even direct phone calls between the leaders, Trump is aggressively trying to find a negotiated settlement to end the war. The biggest impediment so far?
Zelensky.
While Trump tries to find sufficient common ground with Putin to end the war, Zelensky has been going to event after event in Europe to seek more military capacity to keep fighting. When Zelensky was in Washington ostensibly to sign a simple minerals deal, he instead upended the meeting, getting into a shouting match with the president and vice president.
Last weekend Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff returned from a St. Petersburg meeting with Putin saying he thought the two leaders were closer to agreeing on conditions for a “permanent” peace and end of war. At the same time Witkoff and Putin were meeting, Zelensky attended a meeting in Europe where he said he wanted more weapons to force Putin into a peace of Kyiv’s preference.
Then, to make matters even worse, Zelensky gave an interview to CBS News’ 60 Minutes show in which he accused both the president and vice president of being victims of Russian propaganda. “I believe, sadly, Russian narratives are prevailing in the U.S.,” Zelensky told CBS News.
Finally, on Tuesday, in response to Witkoff’s announcement on Fox News Monday night that the U.S. was nearing an agreement with Russia over which territories would remain under Russian control, Zelensky publicly said Trump’s envoys “are discussing issues outside their competence” and that surrendering occupied territories to Russia are a “red line” to which Ukraine will not agree.
Zelensky and Trump are pursuing mutually exclusive objectives.
I know it sounds harsh and cold, but the reality – necessitated because Zelensky continues to work against a realistic end-of-war deal – is that the best thing Trump can do for peace is to tell Zelensky that either he agrees to the deal Trump works out with Putin, or Trump will step aside, leaving Zelensky to conduct his affairs as he sees fit, with whatever help Europe might be willing to give.
President Zelensky of Ukraine. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Nothing else would make sense. If Trump is trying to end the war and Zelensky is only seeking ways to perpetuate the fighting in the delusional hope of “forcing” Putin into a deal that is desirable for Zelensky, no deal will ever be reached. Absent a deal where Russia choose to stop fighting in exchange for a negotiated settlement to which it is satisfied, Putin will simply keep fighting until it takes on the battlefield what it desires.
It is time to shed the fantasy held by so many in the West that even after three horrific years of military failure on the Ukraine side, there is still a military solution that can compel Russia to surrender the territory it has seized in war. There isn’t. Ignoring that reality, continuing to fight, holding out for a “good deal” that no longer exists, will only result in the pointless deaths of yet more hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian men.
That, in my view, is the most immoral thing the West could do.
The only path that holds any hope of mitigating the failure now is to take the best, ugly deal Trump can get from Putin, ending the war and stopping the pointless slaughter of Ukrainian troops. But if Zelensky wants to keep fighting, then Trump should stand aside and let him and Europe do what they think best.
About the Author: Daniel L. Davis
Daniel L. Davis retired from the U.S. Army as a Lt. Col. after 21 years of active service and is now a 19FortyFive Contributing Editor, writing a weekly column. He was deployed into combat zones four times in his career: Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Iraq in 2009, and Afghanistan twice (2005, 2011). Davis was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for Valor at the Battle of 73 Easting in 1991 and awarded a Bronze Star Medal in Afghanistan in 2011. He is the author of The Eleventh Hour in 2020 America. Davis gained some national notoriety in 2012 when he returned from Afghanistan and published a report detailing how senior U.S. military and civilian leaders told the American public and Congress the war was going well while, in reality, it was headed to defeat. Events since confirmed his analysis was correct. Davis was also the recipient of the 2012 Ridenhour Prize for Truth-telling. Currently, you can find Lt Col. Daniel Davis on his YouTube channel, “Daniel Davis Deep Dive,” where he analyzes war, national security, politics, foreign policy, and breaking news with expert commentary.
