The Daily Populous Monday February 23rd, 2026 morning edition
Authored by bbc.co.uk and submitted by DWJones28

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to send out a firm message of defiance.

When we met this weekend in the government headquarters in Kyiv, he said that far from losing, Ukraine would end the war victorious. He was firmly against paying the price for a ceasefire deal demanded by President Vladimir Putin, which is withdrawing from strategic ground that Russia has failed to capture despite sacrificing tens of thousands of soldiers.

Putin, Zelensky told me, has already started World War Three, and the only answer was intense military and economic pressure to force him to step back.

"I believe that Putin has already started it. The question is how much territory he will be able to seize and how to stop him... Russia wants to impose on the world a different way of life and change the lives people have chosen for themselves."

What about Russia's demand for Ukraine to hand over the 20% of the eastern region of Donetsk that it still holds - a line of towns Ukraine calls "fortress cities" - as well as more land in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia? Isn't that, I asked, a reasonable request if it produces a ceasefire?

"I see this differently. I don't look at it simply as land. I see it as abandonment - weakening our positions, abandoning hundreds of thousands of our people who live there. That is how I see it. And I am sure that this 'withdrawal' would divide our society."

But isn't it a good price to pay if that satisfies Putin? Do you think it would satisfy him?

"It would probably satisfy him for a while... he needs a pause... but once he recovers, our European partners say it could take three to five years. In my opinion, he could recover in no more than a couple of years. Where would he go next? We do not know, but that he would want to continue [the war] is a fact."

nairolfy on February 22nd, 2026 at 22:54 UTC »

For the people in this comment section that argue "I'm not fighting in the war yet so no". Look at history, for example WW2

When were you able to call it WW2? When Japan invaded China in 1937? The invasion of Poland by Germany and Russia? When France launched the tiny counter invasion? When Germany invaded Denmark or Normway? Or Belgium, the Netherlands and France?

Such wars don't suddenly involve everyone at once. They gradually build up until seemingly the whole world gets dragged into it. And even then, not all countries get dragged into it. Like Spain didn't directly get involved (but did provide support and a "volunteer army").

So Zelensky is saying that the current war in the future could be seen as part of a future WW3. This current war might just be the start of a domino effect

Remote_Escape on February 22nd, 2026 at 22:53 UTC »

Man, that's the look of a guy who's seen some shit.

Big_Introduction1952 on February 22nd, 2026 at 22:36 UTC »

“I believe that Putin has already started it. The question is how much territory he will be able to seize and how to stop him… Russia wants to impose on the world a different way of life and change the lives people have chosen for themselves.”

Zelensky is right. This doesn’t end with Ukraine.