The pace of world events, in Ukraine and elsewhere, is running circles around the Biden presidency, which will be judged as one of the most incompetent in American history. 

In an interview with French newspaper Le Parisien on Wednesday, President Zelensky said that while “Putin needs to be put in his place,” the Ukrainian territories of Crimea and the Donbas “are now controlled by the Russians.” Declared he: “We don’t have the strength to bring them back.”

Significantly, the Ukrainian president also said that “Legally, we cannot give up our territories. This is prohibited by the constitution.” He added, however, “lLet’s not use such big words. Russia actually controls part of our territory today.”

In a mix of defiance and dismay, the president also stated that  “We can only rely on diplomatic pressure from the international community to bring Putin to the negotiating table.” He added that “No one has the right to negotiate with Putin without Ukraine. We have not delegated this mandate to anyone.”

That could have been a remark directed at President Trump, who has repeatedly said that he wants — and will get, if his confidence prevails — a swift conclusion to the war. Mr. Zelensky said that Trump does not currently have access to all the information concerning the war, which emerged with Russia’s illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 

Russia, according  to multiple sources, currently occupies about 18 percent of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean peninsula and as well as portions of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine illegally occupied by Russia since 2014. 

The comments underscore the failure if not outright futility of the Biden administration’s laconically expressed policy of providing aid to Ukraine for “as long as it takes” — more a sound bite than sound strategy.  

All this is amid a growing awareness at Kyiv that support from America and Europe is not, in the long run, likely to be open-ended. While the billions of dollars in American aid are championed by many, enthusiasm for that level of support is seen as likely to wane under the incoming Trump-Vance administration. 

In recent days there have reportedly been multiple contacts between the Ukrainian leadership and the transitional administration team, in particular with Trump’s special Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg. The former lieutenant general and former national security advisor is expected to make a fact-finding trip to Kyiv as soon as next month. 

For now though, with Biden busily confusing the nation about drones over New Jersey, the signals coming from Washington are still unclear. Apparently, two lines are being discussed. Some, like Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, are pushing to reduce arms supplies to the Ukrainians. 

Others, like General Kellogg, seems to favor a more gradual approach, with the aim of forcing the ravenous Russ to start negotiations sooner rather than later — particularly as Russia’s army, despite staggering losses, is still making gains in Ukraine’s embattled east.

In any case, there seems to be one fixed point: That the Ukrainians will be asked to cede at least part of the approximate one-fifth of their territory that the Russians have taken by force. President Zelensky, through his recent statements, is seemingly coming around to this possibility. 

An astute politician, Mr. Zelensky, is also said to have his eye on shifting public opinion. According to an October 2024 Gallup poll, 52 percent of Ukrainians are in favor of “some territorial concession” in order to end the conflict. That doesn’t mean all is lost though — he could be banking on a transitional formula that could set the stage for reopening negotiations on the ultimate fate of Donbas a few years down the road. 

For now, there is still a broad consensus in Europe and in NATO that for the time being the supply of weapons to Ukraine should continue and possibly even step up in order to stem the Russian offensive in Donbas, where according to some reports Moscow is advancing by about 6.2 miles per day. 

Despite the ubiquitous Ukraine fatigue, this puts fresh pressure on everybody — on Ukraine’s army, first and foremost, but also on the incoming American president.