Zelensky’s office has rejected a German report that he is considering a localised ceasefire as “fake”.
However, Czech President Petr Pavel – who has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine – said this week that part of Ukraine would probably remain “temporarily” occupied, possibly for years.
Olga Rudenko believes that, for most Ukrainians, it’s still “too sensitive and unimaginable to concede anything even temporarily to Russia” – even if that conversation is happening somewhere, privately, within government.
“It’s not that Ukrainians are greedy about the territory,” she says.
“We can’t leave our people there, under Russian control and sentence them to those horrors,” referring to persistent allegations of Russian war crimes.
That sentiment was echoed by 31-year-old Dmytro, whose face and arms were badly burned when he was hit by a Russian drone.
“We will not surrender our territories, for which so many people have been fallen,” he told the BBC in Kyiv.
“If we ended the war at this stage, what were we fighting for then? What for did all our men, our comrades die for?”
A truce, he believes, would simply give Russia time to recuperate and Zelensky has likewise warned against a “frozen” conflict.
Dmytro is already planning his return to the front line to fight alongside his comrades: “I will not retreat, I will be there until my last breath.”
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