Why does Zelenskyy call a ceasefire with Russia a huge compromise?

Zelenskyy said Ukrainians who lost children in places like Bucha, where a grave held around 500 tortured people, cannot be made to forgive Russia. Stopping the fighting on the current lines, rather than winning back land or justice first, is therefore already a large concession, and he said he has asked Trump many times to understand that. A just peace, for him, must at least show a path to punishing the guilty.

Zelenskyy said that after Bucha he felt a wish for revenge for the first time in his life.
Russia wants Ukraine to pull back further, and Zelenskyy asked where the security guarantees would be if it did.

▸In their words

“But that's why we say a ceasefire is the only step” Volodymyr Zelenskyy · at 1:21:43 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett (2026-10-22). Read the whole episode summary →

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