In some comments to reporters on Dec 11, Ukraine’s acting president Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly acknowledged for the Ukrainian population, perhaps for the first time, part of what was being demanded of him by Washington. He told Ukrainian reporters about the Washington document, saying that “the document proposed a withdrawal of the ‘Russians’ from certain areas of our regions where they are currently located. This is what is being considered. That is, they are withdrawing from the corresponding areas of Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipro regions where they are.” And then he added that, regarding the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, the proposal is that the Russians will not withdraw and “stay where we are.... That’s the case today.”
Apparently, that was not the case for Zelenskyy, as of the day before—so, small steps. Implicitly, Crimea, Lugansk, and the Russian-controlled areas of Donetsk seem to be conceded, while he indicated what his pitch to Ukrainians may be—that, putting aside any mention of Crimea, the areas that the Russians hold in the Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye may not be handed back, but that, in the negotiations, he’s going to drive the Russians out of the areas of Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipro that they hold.