“I don’t want to go [down] in history as [the] president who helped Putin to occupy my country,” says Ukrainian leader.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not believe Vladimir Putin is ready for peace talks — and the Ukrainian leader told Donald Trump so.
The U.S. president’s stunning phone call to the Kremlin on Wednesday sent tremors through Kyiv and around Europe, as Washington and Moscow plan to decide on Ukraine’s future between themselves.
“Trump said to me that Putin wants to stop the war. I said to him ‘Putin is a liar. I hope that you will pressure him because I don’t trust him.’ We had a direct conversation with Putin about a cease-fire in 2019,” Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said while speaking on a security cooperation panel at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
After Trump and Russian leader Putin sidelined Ukraine, announcing the start of peace talks beforepresenting the plan to Kyiv, Zelenskyy is bidding to win back a leading role at the negotiating table.
“Trump is stronger than Putin, I think so. But these phone calls with Putin are risky to us,” Zelenskyy said.
In 2019 Zelenskyy held direct talks with Putin about a cease-fire and prisoner exchange, as the Kremlin’s long-running war raged in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. While Putin indeed agreed to release 100 Ukrainian prisoners from Russia, his troops violated the cease-fire right away.
“He will not stick to cease-fire and that’s all. That is why I told the president [Trump] that I think phone calls are phone calls. But don’t make any decisions on Ukraine without Ukraine. And it is not about me, it is about the entire country. If we agree on a pause it will help Putin. And I don’t want to go [down] in history as [the] president who helped Putin to occupy my country,” Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy is still waiting to be invited to Washington for talks with Trump, though he said he’s ready for that at any point. Ukraine’s president also said there’s a lot of work ahead as no treaties can be signed in Munich.
« A peace treaty cannot be signed in Munich, because this is Munich and we remember what things were signed here in the past, » Zelenskyy added at the panel on Friday, referring to the 1938 Munich agreement that led to Nazi Germany occupying the Sudetenland.
