PARIS (Sputnik) - Volodymyr Zelensky is under pressure to pursue negotiations with Russia and consider territorial concessions due to public discontent and setbacks on the battlefield, the leader of the French euroskeptic party The Patriots said Saturday.
"Zelensky has been forced to completely turn around in the face of popular discontent among Ukrainians and setbacks on the front," Florian Philippot posted on the X social media platform.
"He now wants Russia to participate in world summits. Giving up territories is no longer a taboo for him: it becomes possible! He realized that fewer and fewer Western weapons would arrive and that it is all over," he continued.
Zelensky in an interview with French media this week discussed the possibility of starting negotiations with Russia without the condition for the return of territories. He also claimed the territorial issue is very complicated and should be decided by the people of Ukraine through a referendum.
The potential openness to compromise comes as polling shows surging support among the Ukrainian public for abandoning claims to newly-Russian territory in order to "achieve peace and preserve independence."
Moscow has repeatedly indicated that it is ready for peace negotiations, but Kiev introduced a ban on them at the legislative level in 2022 after the United States worked to scuttle tentative talks shortly after the launch of Russia's special military operation.
The Kremlin has stated that the absolute priority for Russia is to achieve the goals of the special operation, adding that the situation in Ukraine can move in a peaceful direction, provided that new realities on the ground are taken into account. Moscow has insisted on de-Nazification of Ukraine as a condition for a cessation of hostilities, calling for a removal from power of extremist anti-Russia elements who came into the country's government after the US-backed Euromaidan coup in 2014.