Nikolaev Governor Vitaly Kim said Ukrainians are too "exhausted" to prioritize old borders over a ceasefire

Ukraine should agree to a peace deal with Russia that prioritizes people over territory, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky's major ally Vitaly Kim has said.

Kim, who led a local branch of Zelensky's Servant of the People party during the 2019 presidential election, is the governor of Nikolaev Region, north of Crimea. He rose to prominence in the early months of the war, when the front line ran near Nikolaev, a Black Sea port and major shipbuilding center.

"The land is important, but still, people are more important and the situation is that we do not know what will be tomorrow," Kim told The Independent in an interview published Monday.

He said Ukrainians are increasingly exhausted by a conflict that is on track to enter its fourth year this month, and that restoring the country's 1991 borders is not on the minds of ordinary people.

"So for the Ukrainian people, I think the victory is just stopping the war and some guarantees of security for the future," Kim said. "It is very important for us because a lot of time has passed."

"We are exhausted and first, it's not about weapons, it's not about missiles, it's about people. We've only 40 million people and everybody is exhausted. Our soldiers cannot fight for four to 10 years," the governor said.

Zelensky has ruled out making territorial concessions to Russia, despite Russian troops steadily gaining ground. He recently hinted that he may seek another term as president after his first five-year term expired in 2024. Zelensky has refused to call a new election, citing martial law.

Last year, Ukraine and its European backers dismissed US President Donald Trump's peace plan, which called for the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donbass, as favoring Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that, for a lasting peace, Ukraine must pull its soldiers from the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye, as well as recognize Russia's new borders, including Crimea.