Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is confident President Trump won’t accept a losing deal with the Kremlin during the peace negotiations — but fears Russian misinformation has penetrated the White House.
Despite his tense meeting with Trump last month, Zelensky said his American counterpart remains Ukraine’s strongest weapon against Russian President Vladimir Putin, as he believes Trump is looking for a big win on the world stage by ending the war.
“If he wants to, Trump can squeeze concessions from the Russians, because he seems to be the only one that Putin fears,” Zelensky told Time Magazine in his first major interview since the Oval Office dust-up.
The Ukrainian president came to conclusion after witnessing how “the Russians got really scared” when the Trump administration threatened to sanction the Kremlin over its continued bombing of Ukrainian cities during the recent peace talks.
After repeated meetings with Trump’s team, Zelensky said it was clear the administration wanted to score diplomatic victories in the war to cement Trump’s legacy.
“They have their own ambitions,” he said of Trump’s team. “They see their role in history.”
Zelensky, however, is also believes that Moscow’s influence has seeped its way into the White House, as evident by the Kursk “lie.”
As Ukraine began retreating from Russia’s Kursk region earlier this month, which they Kyiv for months following a successful counter invasion to pressure Moscow, Putin claimed thousands of Kyiv soldiers were surrounded and at the mercy of his troops.
Putin’s claim was contradicted by several reports from intelligence agencies, experts and reporting from The Post — but Trump still went on to echo Putin’s words despite what his own people were telling him.
“I believe Russia has managed to influence some people on the White House team through information,” Zelensky told Time. “Their signal to the Americans was that the Ukrainians do not want to end the war, and something should be done to force them.”
The Ukrainian president was also dismayed when Trump suggested that Russia be allowed back into the G7, the group of democratic superpowers that exiled Moscow following the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Zelensky said allowing Russia to rejoin the bloc would effectively lift the only real punishment Putin has faced for his repeated invasion of Ukraine — his isolation from the world.
“That’s a big compromise. Imagine releasing Hitler from his political isolation,” Zelensky said.
