Zelensky Tells The World That Ukraine Is Not Losing The War.

Kyiv; February 2026: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has once again asserted that his country is not losing its war against Russia, has taken hundreds of square kilometres in a new counteroffensive, and that European troops should deploy right on the front line after any ceasefire.

Ukraine’s leader was addressing media outlets ahead of the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion, with the outcome of the war, or the shape of any deal to end the fighting, still hanging in the balance.

His assessment of the grinding conflict comes as US President Donald Trump is pushing Kyiv to agree a deal with Moscow, and during one of the most difficult winters for Ukraine’s exhausted population and stretched military.

“You can’t say that we’re losing the war. Honestly, we’re definitely not losing it, definitely. The question is whether we will win”, Zelensky told journalists at the presidential palace in the Ukrainian capital.

“That is the question, but it’s a very costly question”, Zelensky added.

Europe’s deadliest war since World War II had unleashed when Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to pour over the Ukrainian border on February 24, 2022, and it has seen tens of thousands of civilians and hundreds of thousands of military personnel killed on both sides. Russian forces this winter have dramatically escalated a campaign of systematic strikes on Ukrainian energy sites, attacks that have left millions in the cold and dark for weeks in freezing temperatures.

And now Washington and Moscow are both exerting pressure on Kyiv to give up the embattled Donbas region to the Kremlin in any deal to end the four-year war. “Both the Americans and the Russians say that if you want the war to end tomorrow, get out of Donbas”, Zelensky said about the eastern region that Russia has claimed as its own.

US-mediated talks in Geneva earlier this week failed to make progress on the key issue of territory in any deal to end the conflict. Moscow has vowed it will capture the entire Donbas by force if Kyiv does not withdraw, with Putin showing no signs of compromise on his hardline demands to end his four-year invasion.

Ukraine however still controls around one-fifth of the heavily industrialised and fortified Donetsk region, while Russia has seized roughly the entire Lugansk region. The two are together referred to as the Donbas. Ukraine has repeatedly ruled out pulling its troops out of the region, saying such a move would only embolden Russia.

The demand to cede territory to Russia comes as Kyiv’s forces are, according to Zelensky, gaining ground in counterattacks along the southern front line. “I won’t go into too many details”, Zelensky said of the advances, “but today I can congratulate our army first and foremost, all the defence forces, because as of today, 300 square kilometres (115 square miles) have been liberated”.

Military bloggers (milbloggers) have suggested some of those gains could have been aided by sweeping outages of Starlink internet terminals across the Ukraine front, after network owner Elon Musk shut them down following a plea from Kyiv. Zelensky said Kyiv was taking advantage of the situation, but conceded to the media representatives that Ukrainian forces had also experienced interruptions due to the outages. “There are problems, there are challenges”, Zelensky said. But the setbacks faced by the Russian side are “much more serious”.

As well as demanding territorial concessions, the United States and Russia are pressuring Ukraine to hold presidential elections as part of its sweeping plan for a peace deal. Zelensky, who has said that his country could only hold a vote when the war is over, said Russia was only pushing for a quick vote because the Kremlin wants to remove him from power. “Let’s be honest, the Russians just want to replace me”, Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian leader throughout the invasion has dismissed the possibility of holding elections, given that millions of Ukrainians have been forced abroad by the fighting, or are living in occupied territory. He has cited the obstacles to holding any vote with fighting ongoing, in particular in towns and cities that are being bombarded by Russia. Zelensky also said he had not decided if he would stand in a future vote.

The 48-year-old former actor, who swept to a landslide victory in elections in 2019, has said that a ballot can only be held in Ukraine if its allies offer robust security guarantees to dissuade Russian attacks. And he told media reporters yesterday that Kyiv wants European troops, earmarked to be deployed in Ukraine in case of a halt in fighting, to be positioned close to the front. “We would like to see the contingent closer to the front line. Of course, no one wants to stand on the first line, and of course, Ukrainians would like our partners to stand with us on the front line”, Zelensky said.

Security Guarantee –

Any peace deal between Ukraine and Russia needs to include “robust” security guarantees for Kyiv for it to work, major European powers warned on Friday. The declaration, made by the defence ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Poland during a meeting in the Polish city of Krakow, comes as the United States forges on with efforts to broker an agreement between Moscow and Kyiv to halt fighting.

Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia held talks in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday but reached no breakthrough. The European defence ministers said their Ukrainian counterpart joined them for part of their meeting, in which they stressed their countries’ continued support for Kyiv and backed efforts to end hostilities.

But they said, pointedly, that “ensuring the sovereignty and lasting security of Ukraine shall be an integral part of a peace agreement, and that any settlement will have to be backed up by robust security guarantees for Ukraine”. They underlined that “strong Ukrainian Armed Forces are the first security guarantee for a Ukraine in peace”.

Britain and France have taken the lead in preparing for a future deployment of a multinational force to help secure Ukraine during any agreed transition to peace. French President Emmanuel Macron said in January his country could deploy “several thousand” troops to Ukraine.

Russia has repeatedly objected to any military presence provided by NATO countries.

On Friday in Krakow, French Defence Minister Catherine Vautrin told journalists that European security depended on “the establishment of a durable peace based on respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. A ceasefire must never be a prelude to a new aggression”, she said.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius added that pressure must be maintained on Russia to push it to agree to end hostilities. “We are deeply convinced that only maximum pressure from sanctions, from measures against the shadow fleet and Ukrainian successes on the battlefield can persuade Putin to back down”, he said.

The meeting in Poland of the defence ministers occurred just days before the fourth anniversary of the February 24, 2022 start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in Kyiv on Friday that his country was ready to make “real compromises, but not compromises at the cost of our independence and sovereignty”.

Team Maverick.