KYIV, Ukraine>> Hoping to bolster the resolve of a nation whose heart “is covered in scars” after more than 1,000 days of unrelenting Russian assaults, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said in his New Year’s address Wednesday that he believes the United States would continue to stand with Kyiv in “compelling Russia into a just peace.”

He also reiterated his vow that his country would never give up on the goal of making Ukraine whole again.

“One day, Ukraine will return to be together,” Zelenskyy said, addressing Ukrainians living under Russian occupation in Crimea, the eastern Donbas region and the southern cities of Melitopol and Mariupol. Despite his expression of confidence, Zelenskyy faces an uphill fight, not just on the battlefield, but also diplomatically.

Even Zelenskyy has acknowledged that it might not be possible to oust Russia solely by military means from all of the 20% of Ukraine that it occupies. But he reiterated that diplomatic pressure from the West ultimately could help repel the Russian offensive led by President Vladimir Putin.

President-elect Donald Trump’s intentions for Ukraine are unclear. He has said that bringing the war to a quick end will be a priority of his administration but has not offered details on how that can be achieved. He has long made his admiration for Putin known, and has expressed disdain for Ukraine.

Still, Zelenskyy said he had “no doubt that the new American president is willing and capable of achieving peace and ending Putin’s aggression.”

This week, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Russian news agency TASS that Russia would not enter into any negotiations unless Ukraine renounced its objective of reestablishing its internationally recognized 1991 borders, an area that includes Crimea and the Donbas region.

Zelenskyy said in his address that peace could come only when Ukraine was militarily strong enough to force Putin into negotiations. Currently, Russia maintains the initiative across the front, grinding out costly but consistent gains as Ukraine struggles to stabilize its defenses. On Wednesday, Russia’s forces continued to close a pocket of resistance around the Ukrainian town of Kurakhove in the southern Donbas region, according to analysts who track movements on the battlefield using combat footage.