Vladimir Putin is trying to trick Donald Trump and the US into delaying sanctions, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told Sky News.
Speaking to Sky News’ Yalda Hakim at the Presidential Palace in Kyiv, the Ukrainian president was asked about the Russian and US leaders’ summit in Alaska last month – and whether he thought it was a mistake.
“I think it gave a lot to Putin,” he said, “and I believe, if it was a trilateral meeting, we would have some result.”
During their summit in Alaska, the Russian leader is said to have told Mr Trump he wants the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions – and would give up other Ukrainian territories held by his troops in exchange.
Since then, the US president has resumed threats of sanctions against Russia and called for NATO countries to stop buying Russian oil to end the war.
Russian strikes on Ukraine have also continued, and in the last few days there have been incursions into the airspaces of Poland and Romania, while a proposed summit between Mr Zelenskyy and Mr Putin has not materialised.
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After being asked whether Mr Putin is trying to trick Mr Trump, Mr Zelenskyy agreed.
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He added: “He’s doing everything he can to avoid sanctions, to prevent US and Trump from putting sanctions on him, and if you keep postponing applying sanctions any further, then the Russians will be better prepared.”
Mr Zelenskyy also told Hakim that Mr Putin “wanted to escape from political isolation” with the Alaska summit, and believes “he should have paid more” for the meeting with the US president.
“He should have received a setback in this war and stop,” he said. “But instead, he received de-isolation. He got the photos with President Trump.
“He received public dialogue, and I think this opens the doors for Putin into some other summits and formats, because that’s how it is, and we see that, we observe this, and I don’t think he paid anything for it.”
The Ukrainian president continued to say that Mr Putin “should pay, firstly, because he started the war, and secondly, because (he is) trying to find a way out of isolation”.
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Mr Zelenskyy added that it is “very important not to give Mr Putin this space, because otherwise he won’t feel compelled that he has to stop the war”.
“He’s waging the war and everyone is trying to stop him by arguing, by asking him – but instead force should be used,” he said. “He understands force. That’s his language. That is the language he understands.
“He doesn’t speak many languages, but that’s the language of force he understands, just like Russian, his mother tongue – and we ask very much European and US countries to do that, to show that.
“Yes, they take some steps, such as sanctions, for example, but more needs to be done, quicker.”
Sky News will broadcast an extended interview in President Zelenskyy from 6am on Tuesday morning
