Zelenskyy Says Putin Stalling on Cease-Fire as Russia Expands New Offensive

Zelenskyy said that Russian leadership was intent on conquering more of Ukraine’s territory before committing to a U.S.-led cease-fire deal.

(Left) Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Musee de L'Homme in Paris on March 26, 2025. (Right) Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on March 14, 2025. Ludovic Marin, Aleksey Babushkin/AFP via Getty Images

Ukrainian leadership suspects that Russia is intentionally slowing down American-led cease-fire efforts in order to conquer more territory.

Speaking to the press during a visit to Paris on March 27, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Moscow was not engaging in cease-fire negotiations in good faith.

“They’re dragging out the talks and trying to get the U.S. stuck in endless and pointless discussions about fake ‘conditions’ just to buy time and then try to grab more land,” Zelenskyy said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to negotiate on territory from a stronger position, he added.

Ukrainian forces have been struggling to hold back fresh offensives by Russia in the occupied Russian province of Kursk and throughout southeastern Ukraine.

With the spring campaigning season drawing nearer, the Kremlin is opening up a multi-pronged push across the 621-mile front line, seizing villages east of the Dnipro river and pushing hard to eject Ukrainian troops from Russian territory, thereby depriving Kyiv of a key bargaining chip in negotiations.

Some early successes in both efforts have led Russia to stall cease-fire negotiations being led by the United States, and Moscow appears set on carving up more of its neighbor before committing to peace.

Zelenskyy, citing new intelligence reports, said that Russia was also getting ready for new offensives in the northeast Sumy, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Though Putin initially agreed in principle to President Donald Trump’s demands for a 30-day cease-fire in Ukraine, the Russian leader has continued to reject officially committing to such a deal, and has issued a broad array of changing demands each time a deal appeared near fruition.

When asked about the situation earlier this week, Trump said that Russian negotiators could be “dragging their feet” to get a more favorable arrangement before committing to a cease-fire.

The Trump administration succeeded in getting Kyiv and Moscow to tentatively agree to two much more restricted cease-fires, one protecting energy infrastructure and one protecting maritime trade in the Black Sea.

Both of those deals crumbled almost immediately, however, with Ukrainian and Russian forces accusing one another of violating the ban on attacking energy sites and Moscow issuing new demands for the Black Sea deal.

Those demands included far-reaching conditions such as reconnecting Russia’s state bank to the SWIFT international payment system and lifting sanctions on Russia by all European nations.

Fighting has intensified in the eastern city of Pokrovsk, one of Ukraine’s main defensive strongholds and a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region. Capturing the city would bring Russia closer to its stated aim of capturing the entire region.

Likewise, speaking at a forum on Arctic security earlier in the week, Putin said that Russia completely controlled the strategic initiative in Ukraine and suggested its forces would continue to take more Ukrainian land.

“On the entire front line, the strategic initiative is completely in the hands of the Russian armed forces,” Putin said. “Our troops, our guys are moving forward and liberating one territory after another, one settlement after another, every day.”

Reuters contributed to this report.