Zelensky calls on US, Trump to remain on Ukraine's side
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on the United States and its leader Donald Trump to remain on Ukraine's side as the country fights against Russia and Vladimir Putin.
Zelensky said this in an interview with CNN, Ukrinform reports.
Speaking at the Presidential Palace in Kyiv on the eve of the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky said the United States is far too big and too important to walk away from the conflict. He expressed hope that Trump, during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, will back Ukraine as it fights back against Russia.
"They [the United States] have to stay with … a democratic country which is fighting against one person. Because this person is a war. Putin is a war. It's all about himself. It's all about one person. And the country, all his country is in the prison," Zelensky said.
Asked if he believes Trump is putting enough pressure on Putin, Zelensky said, "No."
"If they really want to stop Putin, America's so strong," he said.
Zelensky also noted that security guarantees, especially the issue of how Ukraine's allies would react if Russia invaded Ukraine again in the future, remain a sticking point.
He said he keeps being told that Russia simply would not start another war. "This is not the answer to me. I'm sorry," he said.
"We have good things in these security guarantees, it's true. But I want a very specific answer: what our partners will be ready to do if Putin will come again. This is what Ukrainians want to hear," he said.
According to Zelensky, there is also a disagreement about the sequence of steps toward peace. Trump wants Zelensky to sign a peace agreement with Russia and a deal with the United States and European nations that gives Ukraine its security guarantees all in one go, ideally in a big ceremony marking the end of the war, CNN reports.
However, Zelensky insists that security guarantees must be agreed and ratified by the U.S. Congress first. He said this would give the Ukrainian people the confidence that they could rely on their allies in the future – because they have been let down too many times in the past.
Speaking about another thorny issue, Zelensky told CNN that Ukraine is willing to freeze the war at the current front lines. But he said the Ukrainian military would not withdraw from the areas of the eastern Donetsk region that are still under its control.
CNN notes that Russia is demanding that Ukraine relinquish the roughly 20% of the region that is still under Kyiv's control, including the "fortress belt" of industrial cities, railways and roads that form the backbone of Ukraine's defense and supply the front line.
"Russia wants us just to withdraw our army. … We can't be such, sorry, foolish guys. We are not children. We went through this war, during all these years, and so we just, we can't give them the country on a plate. For people who live there, it's very important what security they will have … 200,000 people live there. What do I have to say to them and what do our soldiers have to say – 'Okay, bye, bye. We go away. You are Russian from this moment?'" he said.
Zelensky also addressed elections and his own future. He was elected in 2019 for a term ending in May 2024, but he has stayed in power as Ukrainian martial law prohibits holding elections during wartime. But Trump has suggested that Ukraine should hold elections.
"It's very interesting when the presidents of different countries, including the United States and Russia, speak about elections in … Ukraine. What do they want? Another president? Okay," he said, wondering if the thinking was that a different leader would back down before Russia.
Zelensky said it is not clear to him whether Trump wants someone else to be president of Ukraine. "I don't know," he said. "He didn't tell me."