Washington, 14 February 2026 (dpa/MIA) — US President Donald Trump has suggested it is up to Ukraine to make the next move regarding a potential peace deal with Russia, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky once again rejected making territorial concessions, a key Moscow demand.

"Russia wants to make a deal and Zelensky's gonna have to get moving, otherwise he's going to miss a great opportunity," Trump told journalists outside the White House on Friday.

Ukrainian, Russian and US officials are due to meet for another round of peace talks in Geneva next week. The direct negotiations, which were resumed earlier this year following a long hiatus, appear to have yielded no tangible results so far as the two sides' positions remain far apart.

Speaking at an event at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Zelensky once again dismissed Russian demands to surrender the eastern Donbass region as demanded by Moscow as a condition for peace.

He pointed to the approximately 200,000 Ukrainians who still live in Ukrainian-controlled parts of the resource-rich region, large parts of which have been seized by Russia since the start of the war in February 2022.

"I have to come to them, to each apartment, knock and say: Look, great idea. Forget your house, forget everything, your relatives, everything, go out from your house because this is the great idea between big bosses," Zelensky said at the event held by Politico.

The Trump administration has been pressuring Kiev to agree to give up the Donbass, a request that Zelensky has consistently rejected.

"Today, only Ukraine is defending Europe. Today, only Europe gives money to Ukraine and helps Ukraine. Today, only the United States can stop [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. And today, only Putin wants this war to continue," the Ukrainian president said.

Sidestepping a question on whether Trump was putting more pressure on Ukraine or Russia in the negotiations to end the war, Zelensky said it was important for the US to issue security guarantees to Ukraine to prevent the conflict from flaring up again after a peace deal is reached.