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Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia and Ukraine were at the “beginning of the end” of Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, but he urged Washington to pay attention to Vladimir Putin’s negotiating “game.”
In a wide-ranging FT interview on the eve of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian president warned that without solid Western security guarantees Moscow would use the ceasefire to rebuild its forces for another attack.
Zelensky also urged the EU to stop procrastinating and set a date for Ukraine to join the bloc, saying it should be by 2027.
He said, “I want a date. I’m asking for it.” “Let us not let the next leaders or the next generation face a situation where Russia blocks Ukraine’s EU membership for 50 years.”
Speaking from his presidential office in Kiev, Zelensky accused the Russian leader of making offers to Donald Trump to weaken Kiev’s negotiating position. Asked how peace talks were progressing, he said that “the Russians are playing games” and are not serious about ending the war.
“The way I see it is, because they’re very bad actors. They’re playing with Trump and playing with the whole world. That’s how it is,” said the former movie star turned Ukrainian president. “Putin thinks he looks trustworthy and can be trusted. No – he’s a bad actor.”
Earlier this month, Zelensky, citing his intelligence services, had claimed that Russian officials had hung up a package of economic cooperation deals with the US worth $12 trillion. He said the proposal included provisions “about Ukraine” that would potentially exploit natural resources in Russian-occupied territories.
He rejected suggestions from the Russian president that Ukraine would take a temporary pause in the fighting to regroup for an offensive. “This is demagoguery and lies,” he said. “Look who benefits from such claims.” He said Moscow was mobilizing 40,000 troops per month and losing 35,000. “They need a break no less than we do.”
“Ukraine needs a ceasefire – yesterday, today, tomorrow,” he said. “We don’t need a truce. We need an end to the war.”
Citing Ukrainian intelligence assessments, Zelensky said Russia is grinding Battle field The cost of progress in 2025 was “an average of 167 people per kilometer of occupied territory”.
“You can immediately see what they are occupying and what they are not. Where they claim to be in positions, you can see they have nothing,” he said, referring to large disputed areas of the front line.
“On the contrary, we have moved forward,” he said, referring to recent advances in disputed areas on the south-eastern front that have been aided by a ban on unauthorized use of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system by Russian forces.
Zelensky’s push for a timetable for joining the EU comes as peace talks face contentious issues including a cease-fire, territorial control and the sequencing of security guarantees. Kiev insists that any pause in fighting should be accompanied by binding commitments from Western partners to prevent future Russian attacks.
The US is convinced that Putin would stop his war if Zelensky hands over the eastern Donbass region, he said, adding that this idea was short-sighted.
He said, “To be honest, I don’t believe that this is all that Russia asks for. Our withdrawal from Donbass and then the war will end.” “Russia is Russia, and you know, you can’t trust them.”
While the war rages, Zelensky also called on Western allies to fund and license weapons production in Ukraine, saying Kiev is close to mass-producing new missiles that have penetrated Russian air defenses.
They confirmed that Ukraine-made FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles successfully hit a major missile production plant inside Russia on Saturday.
He said the pressure Trump had put on Kiev to make concessions for peace was much greater than the pressure put on Moscow. But he said he expects his counterparts in Washington to visit.
Zelensky called on Trump to squeeze out sectors that fund the Kremlin’s war machine, saying “the Russians are costing the most by stopping their shadow fleet, their companies, their ability to trade, their ability to export energy resources from Russia, stopping sanctions evasion.”
“I hope President Trump and the United States will put pressure on Russia and stop Putin,” he said. “But I depend primarily on Ukrainian citizens, our army, our production.”
Zelensky reiterated previous statements that Trump was pressuring Kiev to make concessions to end the war and warned that any ceasefire without binding security guarantees would bring “huge risks”.
“The war could start again. The ceasefire could break down,” he said. “We don’t need a truce. We need an end to the war.”
Cartography by Steven Bernard
