Zelensky: Putin has already started World War 3 and it must be stopped - News Brasil

The president of Ukraine sat with writer Jeremy Bowen in Kiev in the days before the fourth anniversary of the war.

Zelensky said that Putin has already started World War 3 and it should be stopped

- Author, Jeremy Bowen

- Position, editor of international news, Kyiv

- Reading time: 8 minutes

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a defiant stance, said that, far from losing, his country would end the war victoriously.

When we met this weekend at the government headquarters in Kiev, he said that he is completely against paying for the cease-fire agreement requested by President Vladimir Putin, which included the withdrawal from some important areas that Russia failed to capture, despite the sacrifice of tens of thousands of soldiers.

Putin, Zelenskyy said, had already started World War III, and the only response would be intense military and economic pressure to force him to back down.

"I believe Putin has started. The question is how many areas he can capture and how to stop it... Russia wants to impose a different way of life in the world and change the lives of people who choose for themselves."

What about Russia's demand that Ukraine hand over the 20 percent of eastern Donetsk it still controls — many cities that Ukraine calls "fortress cities" — plus more land in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia?Wouldn't that, I asked, be a reasonable request if it resulted in a truce?

"I see it differently. I don't see it simply as land. I see it as abandonment - weakening our positions, abandoning hundreds of thousands of our citizens who live there. That's how I see it. And I'm sure this 'withdrawal' will divide our society."

But isn't it an acceptable price if it satisfies President Putin?Do you think it will satisfy you?

"Maybe he will be satisfied for a while... We need to rest... But after he recovers, our European friends say it will take three to five years. I think he will recover in a year or two. Where will he go? We don't know, but he will want to continue [the fight]."

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I meet Volodymyr Zelensky in a conference room inside a heavily guarded government building. In an affluent area of ​​central Kyiv, he speaks mostly Ukrainian during the interview.

É notável o peso da liderança que Zelensky carrega pela diligência de seus agentes de segurança.

Any visit to a head of state requires strict scrutiny, but entering the presidential buildings in Kyiv takes the process to a level I've rarely experienced.

Not surprising in a country at war with a president already targeted by Russia.

Despite all this, the man who started out as an artist who won Ukraine's version of Strictly Come Dancing in 2006 and played the unlikely president of Ukraine in the TV sitcom before becoming president in real life seems remarkably resilient.

US President Donald Trump said on the eve of the latest ceasefire talks in Geneva that "Ukraine needs to come to the table quickly".

He continues to put more pressure on Ukraine than on Russia.

Western advisers have said since last summer that Trump agrees with Putin that Ukraine's border deals with Russia are essential to the ceasefire he wants — well before next summer.

Many analysts outside the White House believe that Ukraine cannot win the war and will ultimately be defeated without Moscow's consent.

Ask Zelensky if Trump and the others had reason.

"Where are you now?" Zelensky answered."Today you are in Kiev, you are in the capital of our motherland, you are in Ukraine. I am very grateful for that. Will we lose? No, because we are fighting for the independence of Ukraine."

Zelensky often says that Ukraine can win, but what does that victory look like?

He said victory would mean restoring normal life to Ukrainians and ending the killing.But the broader vision he presented was about the global threat he said came from Putin.

"I believe that stopping Putin today and preventing him from occupying Ukraine is a victory for the world. Because Putin will not stop in Ukraine."

You're not saying that victory means you get all the territories back, are you?

"We will do it. It is clear. It is only a matter of time. Doing it today means losing many people - millions - because the Army [of Russia] is big and we understand the cost of such measures. We will not have enough people, we will lose them. And what is the world without people? In fact, nothing."

"We also don't have enough weapons. It depends not only on us, but on our partners. So it's not possible right now, but to return to the just borders of 1991 [the year Ukraine declared its independence, thus hastening the final dissolution of the Soviet Union], without a doubt, it's not just a victory, it's justice. A victory over our entire world of Ukraine is the victory of all of Ukraine. A world for justice."

A year ago, Zelensky visited the White House and received what a senior Western diplomat described as a pre-planned public "diplomatic lynching" of Donald Trump and his vice president, J.D. Vance.

Millions of people watched the confrontation in front of the world media.

Trump, who was recently sworn in for his second term, sent a very strong signal that the era of support for Ukraine under President Joe Biden is over.NATO members have been warned by the new administration.Venus has just returned from a trip where she shattered Western doubts about the strength of the Trans-Pacific Alliance.

Since then, according to reports, led among others by the National Security Adviser of the United Kingdom, Jonathan Powell, Zelensky has avoided confronting Trump publicly.

The US president has suspended almost all military aid shipments to Ukraine.However, the US continues to provide valuable intelligence and European countries buy billions in weapons from the Americans to transfer to Ukraine.

I asked the Ukrainian president about Trump's often contradictory statements, noting that among the lies he has uttered is the accusation that Zelensky is a dictator who started the war, an exact echo of Vladimir Putin's accusations.

"I'm not a dictator and I don't start wars, that's all.

But can you trust President Trump?If you get a security guarantee from him, I asked him if he will keep his word.After all, he is a man who changes positions.

"We are not only talking about President Trump, we are talking about America. We are all presidents for certain terms. We want guarantees for 30 years, for example. Political elites will change, leaders will change."

It means US security guarantees must be approved by Congress in Washington to be legally binding.

"They will be elected to Congress for a reason. It's not just about leaders. Congress is necessary. Because presidents change, but the institutions remain."

Em outras palavras, Donald Trump pode ser imprevisível, mas não estará lá para sempre.

Zelensky says these security guarantees must be in place before he will consider another U.S. demand — that Ukraine hold elections until the summer, citing another Russian argument that he is an illegitimate president.Trump did not ask for the elections in Russia, the first time Putin took the leadership in the last day of the 20th century.

Zelensky said he has not yet decided whether he will run again when the election is held: "I can run or not."

The elections were scheduled for 2024 but could not be held under martial law imposed following Russia's massive invasion.

Holding the delayed elections is technically possible if there is time to change the law to allow them, Zelensky said, but he would first need security guarantees for Ukraine.

He lists so many potential problems with holding elections with millions of Ukrainians abroad as refugees and a sizable portion of the country occupied by Russia, that I suggest he would actually oppose the idea.

"If this is the condition for ending the war, then let's do it. I said, 'Frankly, you keep raising the election issue 'legitimately'."

Volodymyr Zelensky is a staunch opponent and critic in Ukraine.

His government was rocked last fall by a corruption scandal that led to the departure of his closest adviser.

But with the new team, Zelensky maintains approval ratings that most European leaders can only hope for.

He sometimes angered colleagues with constant requests for more and better facilities.One of the accusations that Trump and Vance made against him in the Oval Office a year ago was that he did not show enough gratitude.

The last item on his list is permission to manufacture under license American weapons, including Patriot anti-aircraft missiles.

"The problem today is air defense. It's a very difficult problem. Unfortunately, our partners haven't given us a license to produce the systems themselves, for example, missiles for the Earth system or our existing systems. So far we haven't succeeded."

Why not?

- I don't know, I don't have an answer.

At the end of the interview, he switched from Ukrainian to English.

Because of everything he said, I asked if we should prepare for a long war in Ukraine.

"No, no, no, they are two parallel paths... You are playing chess with many leaders, not with Russia. There is no one right path. You have to choose many parallel steps, parallel paths. I believe that one of these parallel paths will lead to victory. Victory for us is to stop Putin."

But doesn't Vladimir Putin end this war?Unless he's under a lot of pressure - and it doesn't seem like he is.

"Yes and no. We'll see. Yes and no. He doesn't want, but not wanting doesn't mean he won't do it. God bless you. God bless you, we will be. Thank you."

And with that, he posed for pictures, shook hands with the team and walked out of the room with big steps.