Zelenskyy to Trump: Put more pressure on Putin, ‘not on me’
Ukraine’s survival is being forced into a leverage game where White House pressure and EU veto tactics can override transparent, durable commitments to collective security.
Mar 11, 2026
Sources
Summary
Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on President Donald Trump to increase pressure on Vladimir Putin and stop pressing Ukraine to accept a truce after more than four years of war. The U.S. presidency is being positioned as the decisive gatekeeper of negotiation terms and security guarantees while congressional and parliamentary sign-off remains uncertain. The practical consequence is that Ukraine’s battlefield needs, funding continuity, and any durable peace architecture hinge on shifting political leverage in Washington and intra-EU veto points.
Reality Check
When war-ending terms and security guarantees depend on personal leverage rather than binding, legislated commitments, democratic accountability weakens and foreign policy becomes contingent on political pressure cycles. Conditioning peace on opaque promises that can be reversed by future administrations trains the public to accept governance by improvisation instead of enforceable obligations. Allowing veto-based obstruction to dictate shared funding normalizes minority holdouts as a tool to override collective decisions, degrading institutional reliability when it is most needed.
Media
Detail
<p>In an interview at the presidential palace in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine supports negotiations to end the war but does not trust Russia and wants the United States to apply more pressure on Russia rather than on Ukraine’s leadership.</p><p>Zelenskyy’s comments followed statements by President Donald Trump expressing frustration with Zelenskyy and suggesting confidence in Vladimir Putin’s willingness to negotiate a truce, while offering no evidence. Zelenskyy said talks with Trump’s envoys in December indicated the U.S. was prepared to provide some form of security guarantee underpinning any peace deal, but he said Ukraine has received no details.</p><p>Zelenskyy said security guarantees would require approval by national parliaments and the U.S. Congress so they cannot be abandoned by future administrations. He also confirmed Ukraine is sending teams of drone warfare specialists to the Gulf to help U.S. allies defend against Iranian Shahed drones, while seeking PAC-3 missiles for Patriot air defenses in return; he said no final deals have been agreed.</p><p>Separately, Zelenskyy urged EU leaders to create a funding “Plan B” to work around Hungary’s veto of a proposed €90 billion EU loan, describing Viktor Orbán’s actions as “blackmail.”</p>