A dramatic change in tone by Ukraine’s president – acknowledging the strength of Russia’s hold over swathes of Ukrainian territory – has coincided with the imminent return of Donald Trump to the White House.

The incoming US commander-in-chief has said he can end Russia’s war in Ukraine in a day – though without saying how.

One thing is certain, however; his approach will be very different to Joe Biden’s.

Mr Trump has already signalled he disapproves of allowing Ukraine to launch longer-range American ballistic missiles against targets inside Russia – a sign that crucial US military support to Ukrainian forces could be about to be reduced or even end altogether.

For Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he is fast adapting to the new reality his country is facing.

His government wasn’t a huge fan of Mr Biden but he was at least significantly more predictable than his replacement – and consistent in his condemnation of Vladimir Putin.

Then again, Mr Trump’s unpredictability could be used to Ukraine’s advantage when dealing with Moscow.

The new president will not want to look soft or weak as he seeks to push the two sides into a deal.

Into this mix, Mr Zelenskyy has notably altered his language when describing how the conflict could end.

Previously there was no suggestion of negotiations with Moscow which didn’t involve the complete withdrawal of Russian forces.

Now, however, the Ukrainian president has started to voice what he and his Western allies have known for a long time – that Russia’s entrenched positions are impossible to shift with the current level of Western support and Ukrainian fighting capability.

Mr Zelenskyy first signalled his new approach in an interview with Sky News’s Stuart Ramsay, when he said for the first time that Kyiv wants NATO membership for the parts of Ukraine under government control and would wait to regain the rest through diplomacy.

In an interview this week with France’s Le Parisien newspaper, he went further.

“We cannot give up our territories. The Ukrainian constitution forbids us to do so. De facto, these territories are now controlled by the Russians. We do not have the strength to recover them,” he said.

“We can only count on diplomatic pressure from the international community to force Putin to sit down at the negotiating table.”

Mr Zelenskyy continued: “It’s not about who sits across from you; it’s about the position you’re in when negotiating. I don’t believe we’re in a weak position, but we’re also not in a strong one.

“First, we need to develop a model, an action plan, a peace plan – call it what you will. Then, we can present it to Putin or, more broadly, to the Russian people.”

Ukraine cannot remove Russian troops from the land they occupy in the east of the country and Crimea, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has admitted.

While Kyiv would never recognise Russia’s rule, he said diplomacy is the only option to get President Vladimir Putin to withdraw his army.

It comes less than a month after he gave similar remarks to Sky News, when he suggested a ceasefire deal could be struck under certain conditions.

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On Wednesday, he told French newspaper Le Parisien his forces “do not have the strength” to recover land taken by Russia.

“We cannot give up our territories. The Ukrainian constitution forbids us to do so,” he said.

“De facto, these territories are now controlled by the Russians. We do not have the strength to recover them.

“We can only count on diplomatic pressure from the international community to force Putin to sit down at the negotiating table.”

On the same day, NATO’s chief said he wants to put Ukraine in a position of strength for any future peace talks with Russia.

But Mark Rutte also appeared frustrated at speculation around when those peace talks might start, arguing that speaking publicly about it plays into Mr Putin’s hands.

“High on the agenda is to make sure that the president, his team in Ukraine, are in the best possible position one day when they decide to start the peace talks,” he said.

The focus, he added, must be “to do everything now to make sure that when it comes to air defence… we make sure that we provide whatever we can”.

The Kremlin said last week the Ukraine war will continue until the goals set by Mr Putin are achieved by military action or by negotiation.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no talks between Moscow and Kyiv are under way because “the Ukrainian side refuses any negotiations”.

In an interview with Sky News last month, Mr Zelenskyy suggested a ceasefire deal could be struck if the Ukrainian territory he controls could be taken “under the NATO umbrella”.

This would then allow him to negotiate the return of the rest later “in a diplomatic way”.

“If we want to stop the hot phase of the war, we need to take under the NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” he said.

“We need to do it fast. And then on the [occupied] territory of Ukraine, Ukraine can get them back in a diplomatic way.”

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Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday night ahead of a meeting between Mr Zelenskyy and various European leaders including Mr Rutte, UK foreign secretary David Lammy said he does “not see Putin at this stage ready to negotiate”.

“What I see is him firing more missiles, is him sending more young men to their slaughter, is him wanting to divide European allies at this time,” he said.

“We have to remember that you get nowhere with appeasement. You get nowhere with going to the negotiation table with a weak hand.”

He added the “truth” is Mr Putin is “not a man that you can negotiate with” when he is “causing such mayhem on European soil”.

Hours earlier, Downing Street said Sir Keir Starmer has spoken to US president-elect Donald Trump and “reiterated the need for allies to stand together with Ukraine”.

We drove the backbone of Syria, north from Damascus through Homs and Hama to Aleppo, and then south west, through the towns and villages of southern Idlib.

The scale of the devastation is almost impossible to comprehend. Yes, there is daily life and markets and bustling commercial life in the city centres.

But there are also ghost towns stretching on for mile after mile where frontlines were fought over and positions abandoned, tanks left to rot, minefields to maim.

The gutted carcasses of millions of homes, the signature of horrific firepower, Russian air strikes and Assad’s barrel bombs, flung at civilian life.

Eleven million people fled their homes during Syria’s 13-year civil war. This is the rubble and dust they left behind.

Kafr Nabl was an activist town in southern Idlib known, in the early years of the war, as the heart of the revolution.

Now there is not a soul about, but graffiti artists have been through since the fall of the regime and left a celebratory message: “The revolution is an idea. Kafr Nabl is free!”

On a hilltop nearby, Um Abdo and her husband Abu Abdo are busy pruning back olive trees next to what was an Iranian position, and before that their home.

“How are we going to be able to rebuild if we don’t have enough to eat,” says Um Abdo tearfully. “Look behind me, it’s all ruins. Where do we even start?”

She seems more upset about the destruction of her olive and fig trees than she is about her home. They are an elderly couple and they have been through hell.

Um Abdo lists thirty family members who were killed during the war, most of them, her two brothers included, by barrel bombs. Her husband spent three years in jail.

When he came out he found his village destroyed and his family living in displacement camps.

Now Assad is gone, they have decided to try life back home with their olive trees and their little grey puppy.

Their sons fight with HTS, and they are fans of its leader Ahmad al Sharaa. “He’s such a decent man with great manners,” Um Abdo says.

“A man of religion, a man with morals. Everything about him is moral. If he takes over, the entire country will be fine.”

A man we meet trying to fix his motorbike says: “Wherever he is there is security. Things are good.

“He doesn’t have an ego. He’s not strict. He doesn’t, for example, go around saying ‘execute this guy, execute that guy’. There’s none of that.

“He doesn’t go around saying you’re not allowed to smoke, we all smoke, it’s fine!”

It’s a message we hear repeatedly, that al Sharaa has brought stability to Idlib. That even those living in the huge displacement camps around Idlib feel safe, thanks to his Salvation Government.

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One of his signature achievements in Idlib was to stop the fighting between warring factions and bring them under one authority. His challenge now is to do the same across the whole of Syria.

He remains a wanted terrorist with a $10,000 bounty on his head. He was a jihadi, setting up Al Qaeda’s network in Syria – but he says he’s changed.

Idlib is run according to Sharia law but he seems to be suggesting that won’t be the case across the country. Suffice to say, it depends on what he does, not what he says.

What is painfully clear is that he takes on an utterly broken nation. As we’re driving towards Idlib, a van loaded down with family possessions makes its way towards us through the bombed-out streets.

We ask the mother inside what her plans are. She wants to go back to her home, even though it’s destroyed. She has a tent with her for her family, a little boy and a girl.

Her husband was arrested nine years ago and taken to Sednaya prison. She found out last week that he was dead.

“I went blind from all the crying”, she says. “They killed him after torturing him and starving him. Do you know those iron presses that they used?

“My son was only one year old when they took him away. He doesn’t know anything about his father.”

Her son tries to soothe her. “Softly, softly,” he whispers as she sobs.

He is only ten. He shouldn’t have to do this.