Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska gave the Russian leader what he wanted.
“It’s a pity that Ukraine was not there, because I think that President Trump gave, gave Putin what he wanted,” Zelenskyy said. “He had — he wanted, you know, he wanted very much to meet with President Trump, with the president of the United States. And I think that, and I think that Putin got it. And, it’s a pity.”
The Ukrainian president added, “Putin doesn’t want to meet with me, but he wants very much to meet with the president of the United States, to show everybody video and images that he is there.”
Zelenskyy spoke to ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz Friday in an interview that aired on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday.
Zelenskyy’s comments came days before Russia launched more than 800 drones and other munitions across Ukraine overnight Saturday, including the capital city of Kyiv, where the government’s cabinet building was struck. The attacks left at least eight civilians dead and injured 59 others across the country. Ukraine’s Air Force described the attack as a record assault.
As the war in Ukraine drags on, Trump has continued to push — so far, unsuccessfully — for a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy as he seeks to bring the yearslong conflict to a close. This week, a Trump-imposed two-week deadline for peace talks between Putin and Zelenskyy came and went.
Speaking with Raddatz from a bombed-out American-owned factory in Ukraine, Zelenskyy said that he believed that to end the war, more pressure from American and European allies against Russia is needed.
“You talk about more sanctions and more tariffs and more help from President Trump. And you have told him you think he has the power to do this. And yet the deadlines pass again and again and another one has passed,” Raddatz said.
“We all understand that we need additional pressure on Putin. We need pressure from the United States. And I said that I think that President Trump is right about the Europeans — I am very thankful to all the partners. But some of them, I mean, they continue to buy oil and Russian gas. And this is not fair…So we have to stop buying any kind of energy from Russia,” he said.
“This is only one, one way [of] how to stop the killer. You need to take off his, I mean, to take off his weapon. Energy is his weapon,” Zelenskyy added.
On a possible meeting with Putin, Zelenskyy said the Russian president proposed terms for a meeting that he could not accept, and that Putin was “playing games with the United States.”
“He said he will meet if you come to Moscow,” Raddatz said to Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy scoffed.
“He can come to Kyiv,” he said.
“I can’t go to Moscow under — when my country is under missiles, under attacks each day,” Zelenskyy said. “I can’t go to this capital of this terrorist. It’s understandable. And he understands it.”
“It’s the same proposition, as I said, that he has to come to Kyiv. So it’s understandable that he is doing it … to again, to postpone the meeting we set,” he added.
But Zelenskyy noted that the possibility of a bilateral meeting between the two warring leaders is not out of the question — just not on Russian territory.
“I said, look, Mr. President, I’m ready for any kind of meeting — but not in Russia — any kind of meeting, bilateral, trilateral. We’ll be happy if you will be in,” he said.
As for the long sought after security guarantees that Ukraine has requested from American and European allies in the event of an end to the war, Zelenskyy said that “any security guarantees in Ukraine can be based only on our army.”
“I think that, that President [Trump] wants to finish this war. But if we speak about just and lasting peace, it’s important to finish and not to have possibility … to have aggression again in six months, in one year, in two years. It’s not only important only to stop the war. Yes, it’s very important, but to have a lasting peace, to have security,” he said.
Asked by Raddatz what victory looks like for his embattled country, Zelenskyy said the survival of Ukraine.
“Putin’s goal is to occupy Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.
“[Putin] wants, of course, to occupy us totally. For him, this [is] victory. And until he can do it, the victory is on our side,” he said. “So that’s why for us to survive is a victory. Because we are surviving with our identity, with our country, with our independence.”
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