Ukraine's President Zelensky has over some four years of war with Russia made very clear his unbending stance that Ukraine will never cede territory for sake of achieving peace under his watch. Yet reaching a peace settlement precisely hinges on this, as Russia will also not give up the territory it has conquered in the Donbas, including the four eastern territories in declared part of the Russian Federation in a 2022 'popular referendum'.

The White House finally appears to be ratcheting up the pressure on Zelensky to make some kind of serious land concession, however. This was evident in the latest comments by President Trump on the topic of Geneva talks this week. Frustration with Kiev was evident he told reporters aboard Air Force One, "Well, we have big talks." He stated that "It’s going to be very easy. I mean, look, so far, Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you."

This raised eyebrows among Western allies given Trump seemed to put blame squarely on Zelensky and Ukraine for failing to advance the talks, and the Trump-backed 20-point peace plan which is on the table.

This unexpected statement of Trump's was serious enough for Zelensky to issue a response later the same day. The Ukrainian leader said in a just published interview with Axios that the Ukrainian public itself won't let him cede territory.

It seems this is his way of evading the mounting criticism and pressure from Trump - basically by passing it off as unpopular domestically. According to Axios:

• Zelensky said U.S. mediators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have told him Russia genuinely wants to end the war, and that he should coordinate with his own negotiating team on that basis ahead of the talks.
• But Zelensky made clear he's much more pessimistic. He also advised Witkoff and Kushner that they shouldn't try to force him to sell a vision of peace his own people would see as an "unsuccessful story."

He went so far as to proclaim to Axios that it was "not fair" for President Trump to continually call out Ukraine to make concessions, when Moscow is the aggressor.

Ukraine has recently offered a 'freeze' of the front lines, but not permanent and political recognition of territory, which has been long sought by the Putin government. Zelensky has also lately urged a face to face meeting with President Putin, but the Kremlin has made clear nothing of the sort will happen until an acceptable deal is ready to be signed.

In the interview Zelensky suggested that given Russia's size and power, it is easier for the US leader to lean on much smaller Ukraine to make big sacrifices at the negotiating table. 

"I hope it is just his tactics and not the decision," Zelensky said. "We respect each other," he said of Trump, while again thanking the US for seeking to arrange a peace agreement. According to Axios, here's where things stand on the territorial question amid talks in Geneva:

The U.S. mediators have proposed that Ukrainian forces withdraw from the parts of the Donbas they currently hold and allow that area to become a demilitarized "free economic zone." Washington has not taken a position on which country would hold sovereignty there.

At the moment, Russian forces hold some 90% of the Donbass, but are still demanding Kiev cede the whole thing. It is the ten percent which Ukraine forces still possess that Zelensky fears would be ceded over the Russia if he hastily agrees to the current form of Washington's deal.

"This is part of our country, all these citizens, the flag, the land," Zelensky said, and explained that the Ukrainian people would never go for this. That's when he specifically said that only a popular referendum where the people gave its direct input would resolve it.

But he then also stressed Ukrainians "can't understand why" their country would have to give up territory to the invader. Instead, "I think that if we will put in the document ... that we stay where we stay on the contact line, I think that people will support this [in a] referendum. That is my opinion," Zelensky explained.

That's when he basically put the onus on the Ukrainian public, suggesting his own decision-making is not of prime relevance here:

"Emotionally, people will never forgive this. Never. They will not forgive... me, they will not forgive [the U.S.]."

This begs the question: it is truly the common people who would "never" forget? Or does Zelensky more immediately fear the far Right, hawkish anti-Russian sectors within his own government and military? It's long been speculated that if he signed a deal to hand territory to Russia, it wouldn't take long for some Azov assassin to go after him.