Volodymyr Zelensky says Vladimir Putin ‘fears’ Donald Trump
By Rob Harris
London: Volodymyr Zelensky said he told Donald Trump that Russian leader Vladimir Putin “fears” him and that only the incoming US President’s decisiveness can bring the war to a just end.
Confirming for the first time that more than 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed or injured during the war with Russia, the Ukrainian president said in a social media post that his top priority was to work with the US and Europe on how to end the war.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (from left), French President Emmanuel Macron and US President-elect Donald Trump after meeting in Paris.Credit: AP
Zelensky met with Trump in Paris on Saturday after attending a ceremony for the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral, which was devastated by fire in 2019. After the talks, Trump publicly proclaimed that Zelensky was ready for peace and called on Putin to also strive for a ceasefire.
In a swipe at the current US administration, which has reportedly been pushing Ukraine to lower the age of its conscription age from 25 to 18 for men to go to the frontline, Zelensky said the priority should be providing missiles and lowering Russia’s military potential.
“We know that America has the capacity to accomplish remarkable things—things that others have not been able to achieve,” he said. “To succeed in ending this war, we need unity—the unity of America, Europe, and everyone in the world who values security—as well as strong positions and guarantees for peace.”
Trump said at the weekend he was “formulating a concept of how to end that ridiculous war”, with his call for an immediate ceasefire going beyond the public policy stands taken by the Biden administration and Ukraine.
A soldier near the Kurakhove frontline at Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine.Credit: Getty Images
Zelensky is under fierce domestic pressure to end the conflict on favourable terms and said on Monday he was considering a proposal from Macron’s proposal to deploy foreign peacekeepers on its territory.
But he said action was needed now to restore the proper international order.
“I told President Trump that Putin fears only him and, perhaps, China. And that’s the truth—only decisiveness can bring this war to a just end and ensure lasting peace,” he said.
Earlier, Zelensky admitted the previously top-secret casualty numbers a few hours after Trump released the data as evidence that the war needed to stop.
He has previously insisted that figures were strictly confidential and could not be released because they may undermine public morale.
“Since the start of the full-scale war, Ukraine has lost 43,000 soldiers killed in action on the battlefield. There have been 370,000 cases of medical assistance for the wounded,” he said on his social media channels.
“In our army, approximately half of the soldiers wounded in action are later returning to the battlefields”.
As of August, Russia’s war has killed 11,743 civilians and injured 24,614, according to the UN, but the actual figures are thought to be around 750,000 casualties. A lack of access to Russian-occupied and front-line areas makes it nearly impossible to gather accurate numbers.
This high rate of attrition has been blamed on the Kremlin’s “swarm infantry tactics” against Ukrainian strongholds.
Military medics give first aid to wounded Ukrainian soldiers near Bakhmut, Ukraine, in January.Credit: AP
Zelensky also tried to differentiate between the Ukrainian and Russian casualty figures by claiming that Ukraine’s data included light injuries.
Analysts have said that the Russian army lost a record 1500 soldiers every day in November as Putin urged his forces to capture as much territory as possible ahead of an anticipated peace deal next year.
Zelensky said he would work with Macron’s proposal that peacekeeping troops could be deployed to Ukrainian territory to guarantee security while Ukraine was not in NATO, but he said he needed a “clear understanding” first of when his country would be admitted to both the European Union and the military alliance.
Asked on NBC’s Meet the Press if he were actively working to end the nearly three-year war, Trump said, “I am.”
Trump refused to say if he had spoken to Putin since winning the election in November. “I don’t want to say anything about that, because I don’t want to do anything that could impede the negotiation,” Trump said.
Zelensky said Ukraine “wants to end the war more than anyone else in the world”.
“And, of course, a diplomatic end to the war will save more lives,” he said in Kyiv.
“But I stressed to both President Macron and President Trump, you will see that Putin does not want to end this war. He must be forced to do it.
“He can be forced to do it only when Ukraine is strong ... This means being strong on the battlefield, having a strong army, having military packages, etc. This means long-range systems, like ATACMS, Taurus, Storm Shadow.”
With agencies
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