Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior member of Zelensky’s team, said that the idea that the Russian president would agree to a rational peace deal was an ‘illusion’
Marc Bennetts
May 8 2025
The Times
Hopes that President Putin will agree to voluntarily end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a result of peace negotiations are a “big illusion”, a top adviser to President Zelensky has said. “It is impossible to hold rational talks with Russia,” Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior member of Zelensky’s team in Kyiv since 2020, told The Times.
Russia “cannot, does not want to and will not” stop fighting in Ukraine unless it is forced to by economic sanctions and strikes on its military infrastructure, Podolyak said. “All the talk about how it is possible to have negotiations with Russia and to agree on something pragmatically and rationally are just an illusion, one big illusion.”
His comments come after senior members of President Trump’s administration signalled that talks with Russia aimed at bringing peace to Ukraine were going nowhere. JD Vance, the US vice-president, said this week that Russia was “asking for too much”, while Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state and national security adviser, has said Kyiv and Moscow are “still far apart” and that Trump could “move on”. Trump also said recently that he was “pissed off” with Putin. “I can see by the change in [the Trump administration’s] rhetoric that they are now viewing Russia more realistically,” Podolyak said. “Soft diplomacy will only give Russia the feeling that the other side is ready to give ground and so it starts to raise the stakes. Russia wants to dominate in everything, even in bilateral talks with the United States.”
He also said that Putin would now be unable to call off his invasion, even if he wanted to, because the Kremlin had reconfigured Russia’s economy entirely around the war and that Moscow would probably face a “revolt” if he tried to do so. “The military-industrial complex in Russia is the only developed sector today of the economy and a lot of people are making money on the war, either directly from it, or by servicing the war at enterprises and so on. There would be nowhere to redirect all this,” he said. “If Putin were to stop the war now, without coercion, then this would spark a revolt. People would have nowhere to earn this big money, and also nowhere to externalise their hatred. Russia cannot, voluntarily at least, get out of this war now.”
Russian regions have offered payments of up to four million roubles (£36,400) to encourage men to sign up for the war, allowing many families to purchase homes and drag themselves out of poverty. The one-off payments are also on top of monthly salaries of about 200,000 roubles (£1,800), a figure many times higher than the average wages in most regions. Factories are also working day and night to pump out weapons, providing an economic boost.
Critics have said that Trump’s negotiators with Russia lack the background knowledge and expertise to be able to achieve even a ceasefire in the war. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy, was unable in a recent interview to name the four regions in Ukraine’s east and south that the Kremlin claims as Russian land.
However, Podolyak said that Ukraine was not necessarily facing a forever war. “Russia can only be forced to peace by sharply increasing the costs to it of the war, primarily the financial costs,” he said, calling for secondary sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil and gas, such as India and China. Trump said last month that he could introduce the sanctions, if he felt that Russia was to blame for the lack of progress in talks.
Podolyak added that increased Ukrainian strikes on military targets in Russia, as well as drone attacks, would bring the war home to Russians. He cited the waves of Ukrainian drones that forced the mass closure of airports in Moscow this week, leaving passengers stranded on the runway for up to ten hours. “This has a significant impact on the public mood in Russia,” he said.
After a phone call with President Trump on Thursday evening, Zelensky said he had discussed Ukraine’s willingness to begin a “30-day ceasefire, starting today”. “But for this, Russia must show the seriousness of its intentions to end the war, starting with a complete and unconditional ceasefire,” the Ukrainian leader added in a post on social media.
Posting on Truth Social, Trump said “talks with Russia/Ukraine continue”, without mentioning his phone call with Zelensky. “Hopefully, an acceptable ceasefire will be observed,” continued Trump, “and both Countries will be held accountable for respecting the sanctity of these direct negotiations. If the ceasefire is not respected, the US and its partners will impose further sanctions”
Trump is distrusted by nine out of ten Ukrainians, according to a recent poll by the New Europe Centre in Kyiv, a figure that has doubled since the US election in November.
However, despite Trump’s false description of Zelensky as a dictator who started the war with Russia, Podolyak said that Ukraine still counted the United States as an important ally, alongside Europe. “Emotionally, yes, things are very hard, because this is the third year of war, but we still realise that the United States is our partner,” he said.
Last week Trump approved his first package of military assistance for Ukraine since returning to the White House after Kyiv signed a long-awaited deal to grant the US access to its rare earth minerals. The agreement was ratified today by the Ukrainian parliament. The deal, which was initially proposed by Zelensky even before Trump took office in January, will guarantee the supply of US weapons to Kyiv, something that has been in doubt in recent months, Podolyak said. “They need to defend their assets now, right?” he said. “And if we are partners with them, then they can sell us, even on a commercial basis, weapons that we will use to defend our territory and, with it, their assets.”
Russia ordered a truce to coincide with its Victory Day commemorations for the end of the Second World War in Europe, saying it would test Kyiv’s “readiness” for long-term peace, but
Ukraine never agreed to it and has called instead for a longer 30-day ceasefire. “Predictably, Putin’s parade ceasefire proves to be a farce,” Andriy Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said. “Russian forces continue to attack across the entire front line. From midnight to midday, Russia carried out 734 ceasefire violations and 63 assault operations.”
Marc Bennetts has been covering Russia and the former Soviet Union, including Ukraine, for The Times and Sunday Times since 2015. He has reported from all across Russia, from Chechnya to deepest Siberia. He has also reported from Iran and North Korea. Marc is the author of two books: I’m Going to Ruin Their Lives, about Putin’s crackdown on the opposition, and Football Dynamo, about Russian football culture. He is now writing a thriller, set during the polar night in Russia’s far north.