We are ’10 per cent’ away from peace, Zelensky tells Ukrainians

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a media conference at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday his country was “10 per cent” away from a peace deal with Russia, but cautioned that the most important issues were still unsolved and that any agreement should not reward Moscow.

In his New Year’s Eve address, the wartime president said his country wanted an end to the war but not at “any cost”, and that any agreement needed strong security guarantees to deter Russia from invading again.

“The peace agreement is 90 per cent ready. Ten per cent remains. And that is far more than just numbers,” Zelensky said in the address, posted on his Telegram account.

“Those are the 10 per cent that will determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe,” he added.

The United States has sought to craft a peace deal with input from both Moscow and Kyiv, but has failed to reach a breakthrough on the key issue of territory in a post-war settlement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been pushing for full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as part of a deal, but Zelensky said in his address that he did not believe Russia would stop at the Donbas if Ukraine withdrew.

“‘Pull out from the Donbas, and it will all be over.’ That is how deception sounds when translated from Russian -- into Ukrainian, into English, into German, into French, and, in fact, into any language in the world,” he said.