{"id":307430,"date":"2025-04-26T05:55:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T05:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=307430"},"modified":"2025-04-27T07:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T07:18:07","slug":"zelensky-rival-adds-pressure-to-compromise-on-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=307430","title":{"rendered":"Zelensky Rival Adds Pressure to Compromise on Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Vitaly Klitschko<\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Shane Croucher \u2013 NEWSWEEK.com April 24, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Kyiv&#8217;s Mayor Vitaly Klitschko has added to the pressure on Ukrainian President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/topic\/volodymyr-zelensky\">Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> to compromise on recognizing Russian control of the land Moscow currently occupies.<\/p>\n<p>Klitschko has clashed with Zelensky previously and is widely seen as a potential rival when Ukraine next holds presidential elections.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not fair, but for the peace\u2014temporary peace\u2014maybe it can be [a] solution,&#8221; Klitschko told the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/topic\/bbc\">BBC<\/a>, referring to Ukraine giving up land to secure a deal. But he emphasized &#8220;temporary&#8221; again, and said Ukrainians will &#8220;never accept occupation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Why It Matters<\/h2>\n<p>President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/topic\/donald-trump\">Donald Trump<\/a> has threatened to walk away from the peace process his administration is brokering unless progress is made soon.<\/p>\n<p>The two major obstacles are disputes over recognition of territory, such as Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and the future of Ukrainian security.<\/p>\n<h2>What to Know<\/h2>\n<p>Klitschko said he does not talk with Zelensky directly about the plans for peace. Asked if he feels, as mayor of the capital, that he should be invited to such discussions, Klitschko replied: &#8220;President Zelensky doesn&#8217;t think so.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8220;It&#8217;s not my function, first of all. It&#8217;s the function of President Zelensky.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Trump has sharply criticized Zelensky over the issue of Crimea. The U.S. recognizing Crimea as Russian is part of a Trump Administration draft peace plan under discussion.<\/p>\n<h2>What People Are Saying<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Zelensky<\/strong> had said he is constitutionally bound not to recognize Russian control of Crimea, so there is &#8220;nothing to talk about here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In a post on his Truth Social platform, <strong>Trump<\/strong> called Zelensky&#8217;s statement &#8220;very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago&#8221; and it is &#8220;not even a point of discussion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>What Happens Next<\/h2>\n<p>A growing rift is emerging among Western allies over the U.S.-backed framework that would see Ukraine cede territory in exchange for a ceasefire with Russia. While several European partners remain cautious\u2014concerned about the precedent such a deal might set\u2014some acknowledge the entrenched reality on the battlefield.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/zelensky-klitschko-kyiv-russia-land-ukraine-2064028\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We wouldn\u2019t be surprised if the former heavyweight champion and current Mayor of Kiev, Vitaly Klitschko, wasn\u2019t being backed by elements in the West to takeover from Zelensky<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":277125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-307430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia","category-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=307430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":307431,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307430\/revisions\/307431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/277125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=307430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=307430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=307430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}