Volodymyr Zelensky declared Wednesday that he has “trust” in President Trump and his ability to negotiate an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine, but at the same time doesn’t under the commander-in-chief’s “painful” relationship with Vladimir Putin.
“I trust him [Trump] … he really wants to end this war, and I trust that he really can end this war,” the Ukrainian president said during an interview with “Piers Morgan Uncensored” posted on YouTube.
“But I don’t know, to speak about his relationship with Putin,” Zelensky added.
The Ukrainian leader explained that he couldn’t “really estimate or understand” Trump’s relationship with the Russian strongman but that it’s not a “question of trust or not.”
“[T]hey have some relations, I’m sure and that’s why for me, sometimes it’s very, very painful that his attitude to Putin is sometimes, to put it, more good than Putin deserves,” Zelensky said.
Trump has engaged directly with Putin throughout his second term in an effort to end the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.
The pair have held several phone calls and met in Alaska last October for talks that failed to materialize in a peace deal.
Their engagement resulted in a one-week cease-fire earlier this year that Putin appeared to violate just days into the truce — with a barbaric attack against a Ukrainian energy plant amid bitter cold in the region.
However, Trump argued that Putin “kept his word” and did not violate the terms of the deal.
“People are tired, yes, people want to finish with this tragedy… to end this war, as quickly as possible of course, but in the right way not to loose dignity in any way,” Zelensky said of the mood in Ukraine as the four-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion approaches.
Zelensky noted that the next round of trilateral negotiations will take place in Switzerland, the site of the previous round, which is important to him.
“If the war is in Europe … Europeans, they have to feel that this is aggression against us and Europe … this why peace negotiations have to be in Europe,” he said.
Despite enduring a “difficult, terrible winter” marked by Russian attacks targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure — leaving civilians without power in frigid temperatures — Zelensky was adamant that Russian troops did not make any significant gains on the front lines.
“There were no successful steps on the battlefield,” Zelensky said of Russia’s winter military campaign, claiming that the aggressors lost up to 35,000 troops per month to death or injury.