Zelensky: The Germans help us more than the Americans

The Germans help us more than the Americans, but the Russians are only afraid of US President Donald Trump, said the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Tuesday in an interview with the German station ZDF.

Commenting on the electoral result in Hungary, Zelensky said that he was “glad that Hungarians chose Europe.” He also expressed hope that “now there is a better chance” that the EU loan for Ukraine worth EUR 90 billion, blocked by the outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is in conflict with him, will be pushed through.

The President of Ukraine called Germany “the largest strategic partner in Europe.”

– Honestly, Germans do more than everyone else. Americans are not financing our fight. I don't want to compare the USA and Germany, but Germany helps more, Zelensky said.

When asked about the US and Israel's war with Iran, Zelensky admitted that if the ceasefire ceases to apply, arms supplies to his country may ultimately suffer. The situation is particularly critical regarding anti-aircraft defense.

In an interview with ZDF Zelensky expressed his belief that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is only afraid of Donald Trump.”

When asked if he believed the US president was on his side, he replied: “I have the impression that he said from the beginning that he would stay in the middle.” At the same time, however, according to Zelensky, the US president is sending “more positive signals towards Russia than towards Ukraine.”

– If the US stops putting pressure and just conducts a soft dialogue with the Russians, they will stop being afraid of it – said the Ukrainian president.

Zelensky expressed hope that Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the US president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will soon arrive in Kiev, who now “don't have time for Ukraine” due to the war in the Middle East.

According to the Ukrainian leader, the problem of American negotiators is that “they believe that the Russians are winning this war.” – They're wrong. And this is not the first time that Americans are wrong about Russia, said the president of Ukraine.

The conversation also touched on Zelensky's words to Orban that he would “give this person's (Orban's) address to the soldiers so that they can talk to him in their own way.”

The President of Ukraine said he did not regret this comment. – We fight for Europe and defend Europe. Without these EUR 90 billion loans, we have no weapons, how can we fight? Ukrainian soldiers are also defending Orban and his house, he said.

Zelensky was in Berlin on Tuesday, where German-Ukrainian intergovernmental consultations were held. During them, the German government agreed to finance Ukraine several hundred missiles for the Patriot air defense systems. The new, extensive cooperation package between Kiev and Berlin is expected to amount to EUR 4 billion. Receiving Zelensky at the Chancellor's Office, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Germany was raising relations with Ukraine to the level of a strategic partnership.

From Berlin Mateusz Obremski (PAP)

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