Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Wednesday that he “trusts” President Trump and his ability to negotiate an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine, but at the same time we are not under the “painful” relationship of the commander-in-chief with Vladimir Putin.
“I trust him [Trump] … he really wants to end this war, and I hope he can really end this war,” said the Ukrainian president during an interview with “Piers Morgan Uncensored” on YouTube.
“But I don’t know, talking about his relationship with Putin,” added Zelensky.
The Ukrainian leader explained that he could not “measure or understand” Trump’s relationship with the Russian strongman but it is not “a question of trust or not.”
“[T]hey he had some kind of relationship, I’m sure that’s why for me, sometimes it’s very painful that his attitude towards Putin is sometimes, to put it, better than Putin deserves,” said Zelensky.
Trump engaged directly with Putin during his second term in an effort to end Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.
The two have held several phone calls and met in Alaska last October for talks that failed to reach a peace agreement.
Their engagement led to a week-long truce earlier this year when Putin appeared to break within days of the deal – with a brutal attack on Ukraine’s energy industry amid a bitter cold spell in the region.
However, Trump said that Putin “kept his word” and did not violate the terms of the agreement.
“People are tired, yes, people want to end this tragedy … to end this war, as soon as possible, but in the right way so as not to leave a shadow in any way,” Zelensky said about the situation in Ukraine as four years of the Russian invasion approach.
Zelensky noted that the next round of trilateral talks will take place in Switzerland, the venue of the previous round, which is important to him.
“If the war is in Europe … the people of Europe, they should feel that this is violence against us and Europe … that’s why the peace talks should be in Europe,” he said.
Despite enduring a “difficult, terrible winter” marked by Russian attacks targeting energy infrastructure in Ukraine – leaving civilians without power in frigid temperatures – Zelensky was adamant that the Russian military had done nothing significant on the front lines.
“There were no successful actions on the battlefield,” Zelensky said of Russia’s winter campaign, saying the attackers lost up to 35,000 soldiers a month to death or injury.
