Zelenskyy's public frustration grows as Putin's war enters a 5th year

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is increasingly angry with peace talks as Vladimir Putin's invasion reached its four-year anniversary Tuesday.

After four years leading his country in war, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is very frustrated.

Russia may have been thwarted in its immediate bid to sweep aside the Ukrainian president and swallow its neighbor whole. But after months of U.S.-led negotiations, and as the conflict enters its fifth year on Tuesday, there has been little clear progress on key sticking points in peace talks.

Now, Zelenskyy’s defiance of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion has taken on an increasingly exasperated, if not desperate, tone.

“I don’t need historical s--- to end this war and move to diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X last week. It was an apparent reference to Vladimir Medinsky, the lead Russian negotiator whose historical views mirror those of President Vladimir Putin — that much of Ukraine has always been part of Russia, rather than an independent state.

The Kremlin has signaled not just that it won’t ease its hard-line demands, but that it remains determined to assert its historical justification for the war.