Zelensky Welcomes 2025: We Will Fight

2nd January 2025

2 minutes read

Regardless of political changes on the international stage, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky outlined his country’s strategic goals for the new year.

On Tuesday night, Zelensky announced that in 2025, Ukraine would need to continue fighting “on the ground” to achieve gains that could later be leveraged “at the negotiation table.”

In a speech to the nation marking the New Year, he said: “Every day of the coming year, I must fight, and we all must fight for a Ukraine strong enough, because only such a Ukraine will be respected and heard, whether on the battlefield or at the negotiation table.”

The upcoming year will be pivotal for the Ukrainian crisis, as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump officially takes office later this month.

Despite Trump‘s inclination to initiate a new round of negotiations, Zelensky asserted that his country would do everything possible in 2025 to “stop Russia and end the war” that has been ongoing for three years.

He added: “I hope 2025 will be our year, the year of Ukraine. We know that peace will not be given to us as a gift, but we will do everything we can to stop Russia and end the war. That’s what all of us hope for.”

The year 2024 was challenging for Kyiv, which, according to an assessment by Agence France-Presse, lost seven times more territory to the Russian army than in 2023.

The outlook for 2025 is no brighter for Kyiv, as it faces the potential reduction of U.S. military and political support after Trump returns to the presidency in three weeks.

On Monday, outgoing President Joe Biden’s administration announced a security and economic aid package for Kyiv worth approximately $6 billion, appearing to race against time to bolster Ukraine before Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

Trump has pledged to end the war in Ukraine within “24 hours” of returning to the White House, a promise that has raised concerns Ukraine might have to surrender territories controlled by Russia to achieve peace.

In his New Year’s address, Zelensky stated: “I have no doubt that the new U.S. president is ready and capable of achieving peace and ending Putin‘s aggression.”

Meanwhile, Putin, in his New Year’s speech on Tuesday, praised “the courage and bravery of Russian soldiers,” but made no direct mention of the war in Ukraine.

Washington and its Western allies describe Russia’s actions as an invasion, but Moscow rejects this characterization, calling the conflict in Ukraine a special military operation aimed at protecting the Russian-speaking minority in Ukraine and preventing Kyiv from joining NATO.