Why Ukrainians Resist 'Land for Peace' - WP.

Amid the ongoing Russian military offensive in Donbas, pressure on Kyiv is mounting: some partners are demanding negotiations with Russia and discussions of 'land for peace.'

Even now, as President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy travels to the United States with a 'victory plan,' which he says will end the war in Ukraine's favor, the future leadership of the United States hangs in the balance. Republican candidate Donald Trump and his running mate Senator J.D. Vance (Ohio) have made it clear that their plan to end the war will include ceding Ukrainian territory, The Washington Post reports.

Any 'land for peace' agreement is most likely to decide the fate of Donbas, which has plunged into conflict and separatism driven by Moscow. However, polls show that the Ukrainian people are not ready to give up their land, especially among those soldiers in Donbas who have fought for it over the past 10 years.

'If that happened, there would be a coup, because this idea would be pushed by those who live in peaceful cities. No one here would support it - now this land has been drenched in our blood,' says 23-year-old Veronika, a combat medic who moved to Sloviansk after fleeing Donetsk with her family when Russian-backed separatists took it over in 2014.

An opinion poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in May showed that a third of Ukrainians are now willing to make territorial concessions to Russia if it leads to a quick end to the war and the preservation of Ukraine's independence. But the majority of the population still rejects the idea of ceding land in exchange for peace.

A previous survey by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace showed that nearly half of Ukrainians were willing to start negotiations with Russia, but their number sharply decreased if territorial concessions were considered. For example, nearly two-thirds of respondents rejected the option that would freeze the 'current front lines,' and 86 percent did not believe that Russia would not attack again even after signing an agreement.