Ukraine has little chance of surviving Russia’s assault without United States support, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says, as US President Donald Trump announced negotiations to end the war will begin after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Probably it will be very, very, very difficult. And of course, in all the difficult situations you have a chance. But we will have low chance – low chance to survive without support of the United States,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with NBC News.
“I don’t want to think that we will not be strategic partners,” Zelenskyy added, according to an excerpt from the interview released ahead of its scheduled broadcast on Sunday.
The Ukrainian president also argued Putin is not interested in ending the war but only in a temporary ceasefire that would lead to the lifting of sanctions, giving Russia’s military an opportunity to regroup.
He also expressed concern at the possibility of Ukraine being militarily weakened without US military support and more vulnerable to Russian attacks.
‘We want peace very much’
Trump stunned allies and upended the status quo of US support for Ukraine on Wednesday when he announced he discussed the war in separate calls with Putin and Zelenskyy.
In a shift in US foreign policy, Trump announced he would likely soon meet Putin to start truce talks.
Trump later said he did not think it was practical for Kyiv to join NATO and it’s unlikely Ukraine would get back all of its land. Ukraine demands Russia withdraw from captured territory and says it must receive NATO membership or equivalent security guarantees to prevent Moscow from attacking again.
Zelenskyy met Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference on Friday as he scrambled to ensure Ukraine is not sidelined in Washington’s push to wrap up the three-year war that’s killed an estimated one million people on both sides.
“We want peace very much but we need real security guarantees,” he said after the meeting. He later wrote on X that an envoy from Washington would soon visit Kyiv.
Vance described “good conversations” with Zelenskyy and acknowledged the US administration’s goal of bringing the war to a close.
“We want to achieve a durable lasting peace, not the kind of peace that’s going to have Eastern Europe in conflict just a couple years down the road,” he said.
European allies, who along with Washington are Ukraine’s strongest backers, demanded they also be included in negotiations that will affect their continent’s security.
Russia now holds about 20 percent of Ukraine after launching a full-scale invasion, saying Kyiv’s pursuit of NATO membership posed an existential threat. Ukraine and the West call Russia’s action an imperialist land grab.
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