Zelensky in an interview with CNN: Trump is not putting enough pressure on Putin

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to US leader Donald Trump to remain on Ukraine's side in an interview with CNN. He said Trump was not putting enough pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky admitted in an interview with the American station that Ukrainians are exhausted by the war, but giving in to Russian demands is not an option.

– We can't just give him everything he wants. Because he wants to occupy us. If we give him everything he wants, we will lose everything – we will all have to flee or become Russians, Zelensky said.

He admitted that the issue of security guarantees remains a controversial point during the negotiations.

– 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 returns. This is what Ukrainians want to hear, he added.

Zelensky also drew attention todivergences on the sequence of actions to lead to peace. Trump wants Zelensky to sign simultaneously a peace agreement with Russia and an agreement with the United States and European countries that will give Ukraine security guarantees. It would be best if it took place during a solemn ceremony marking the end of the war.

However, the Ukrainian leader wants the issue of guarantees to be first accepted and ratified by the US Congress. This would give Ukrainians confidence that they will be able to rely on their allies in the future, because – as he added – they have been let down too many times in the past.

He declared that Ukraine is ready to freeze the war on the current front lines. However, he announced that the Ukrainian army would not withdraw from the areas of the Donetsk Oblast that are still under its control.

– Russia wants us to simply withdraw our army. (…) We cannot be such, sorry, fools. We are not children. We've been through this war, all these years, so we can't just give them the country on a platter, he argued.

When asked if he thought Trump was putting enough pressure on Putin, he replied: – No.

Zelensky also emphasized that the US is too big and too important to turn away from the war. He added that he hoped that Trump would support Ukraine during his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

– They must stay with (…) a democratic country that is fighting against one person. Because this person is the war. Putin is war. It's all about him. It's all about one person. And this country, his entire country, is in prison, Zelensky said on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the Russian invasion.

From Washington Natalia Dziurdzińska (PAP)

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