Under pressure to cede land to Russia, Zelenskyy held a referendum

For nearly four years, the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk has been a stronghold – an important transport hub for the military, and for the people, a literal and figurative fortress standing firm against Russian pressure that continues to approach from the south and east.

But under the Trump administration’s latest vision for peace, Ukraine would be forced to withdraw its troops from the city and other areas of Donetsk it still controls. Under the proposed agreement, the area would be transformed into a special economic zone.

“It’s nonsense,” said Maksym Lysenko, a businessman from the devastated Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, who opened a shop in Kramatorsk over the summer selling patriotic clothing.

“People were dying, shedding their blood, and what do you say, just leave the place?”

When Zelenskyy was asked last week about what kind of bitter deals Kyiv would be willing to make for peace, he floated the idea of ​​a referendum, saying it should be up to Ukrainians to decide.

Lysenko did not see this proposal as a way to gauge the public’s desire for an agreement, but he saw it as Zelenskyy’s attempt to anger US President Donald Trump, who has been constantly shouting at him. disrespectful and ungrateful.

“[Zelenskyy] he simply said that he would not offend the US president again,” said Lysenko. “He said, ‘Okay, he wants a referendum; ok then let’s do a survey.’

To cast a vote

With Russian positions now less than 20 kilometers from the borders of Kramatorsk, and with the city constantly under threat from drones and missiles, some of the tens of thousands of citizens left are making the difficult decision to leave, as the future of the city remains in the midst of ongoing negotiations.

Meanwhile, Trump, quick to make a deal, blamed Zelenskyy clinging to power and asked how long Ukraine could remain a democracy if it did not hold elections. In response, the president of Ukraine said that the country is ready to vote, providing the US and other allies provide security.

That proposal is also seen as a way of trying to respectfully push back against US pressure to cede territory to Russia, turning any decision to ultimately refer to the Ukrainian public, which strongly opposes this idea.

Survey have shown that while the majority of Ukrainians are in favor of a ceasefire agreement that would stop the war going forward, three-quarters would not support a deal that would make major concessions. That includes the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donbas region.

“People are tired; people want peace. People are open to concessions, but not surrender,” said Anton Hrushetskyi, executive director of the Kyiv International Institute for Sociology.

His organization regularly polls the public by telephone throughout the Kyiv-controlled part of Ukraine. The most recent survey was conducted between Nov. 26 and Dec. 13 and included 547 respondents.

Public voting

Hrushetskyi told CBC News in a Zoom interview that it was difficult to conduct surveys to gauge public support for a potential peace deal, because it is unclear what is on the table.

Still, he says the results of a recent survey showed that Ukrainians were ready to “endure war as long as it takes to achieve some decent conditions” for peace.

He says this kind of attitude has remained strong throughout the war, but what has changed is the level of trust in the US. Just 21 percent of Ukrainians trust Washington, down from 41 percent at the same time last year.

Khrushetsky he says that Zelenskyy’s idea of ​​a referendum was “some kind of show” to the US that Ukraine is doing what Trump wants, in fact it would be very difficult to achieve it, as it would first require a ceasefire, which Russia has repeatedly refused.

Russia also rejected the referendum proposal. On Dec. 12, Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, said there would be no vote, because “this area is Russian territory,” referring to the entire Donba.

More chat support

However, Mikhail Alexseev, a professor of political science at San Diego State University, thinks this idea is possible. He says the survey can be done slowly over the phone or over the internet in remote areas.

However, he believes that the Ukrainian people will strongly oppose any plan that would require the country to cede some of the Donbas.

“I think that if a referendum was held today, they would not accept at all the kind of proposals put forward by Putin,” he said.

Road map with 28 points drafted by the US and Russia and leaked last month was criticized by Ukraine and its European allies as Moscow’s wish list that would see Kyiv give up territory, reduce the size of its army and abandon its NATO ambitions in return. security guarantees.

Ukraine said it was willing to drop its goal of joining NATO, and that there has been real progress in drawing up strong security guarantees, but the territorial issue remains very difficult.

Alexseev is acting collaboratively research with the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences for almost 10 years, and has been voting for a group of hundreds of Ukrainians since 2021.

He told CBC News in a Zoom interview that there has been a “great softening of the territorial question” and that the flurry of diplomatic meetings, which have intensified over the summer, have increased Ukrainian support for some form of negotiation.

But he says that at best, the talk is about a little compromise.

“Actually, Zelenskyy is more conciliatory than the Ukrainian public in these matters because he understands technology,” he said.

“He understands the importance of the relationship and the importance of military aid and the many political issues that go with it.”

He says that for Ukrainian society, anything that looks like capitulation “will be absurd.”

Many residents are leaving

Back in Kramatorsk, Lysenko says that a month ago, many residents were leaving the city, because in November Ukraine stopped the railway line in the leading community due to security reasons.

He opened his shop in the summer, with shelves full of shirts that read, “The sun will rise over a free Donbas.”

He has no immediate plans to leave, but is making arrangements for some of his staff to move to Kyiv due to the “dangerous situation.”

After almost four years of war, he says everyone wants it to end, but he believes that giving up territory is not a step towards peace.

“Russia wants all of Ukraine,” he said. “Even if Donetsk surrenders completely, in two or three years, we will have a new war.”