Ukraine Russia Monitoring Desk Islamabad
In a wide-ranging BBC interview at government headquarters in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he believes Vladimir Putin “has already started” World War Three and that only “intense military and economic pressure” can force him to retreat.
Zelenskyy rejected Russia’s demand that Ukraine withdraw from the 20% of Donetsk Oblast it still holds — a line of towns Ukraine calls “fortress cities” — along with additional territory in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. “I don’t look at it simply as land. I see it as abandonment — weakening our positions, abandoning hundreds of thousands of our people who live there,” he said.
He warned that any pause from concessions would be temporary. European partners estimate Russia could recover in three to five years; Zelenskyy believes it could take as little as two. “Where would he go next? We do not know, but that he would want to continue the war is a fact.”
On restoring Ukraine’s 1991 borders, he called it “only a matter of time” but acknowledged the human cost makes it impossible now: “To do it today would mean losing a huge number of people — millions of people.”
The interview also covered Zelenskyy’s relationship with Donald Trump, who BBC correspondent Jeremy Bowen noted “continues to default to putting more pressure on Ukraine than on Russia.” Western diplomats have indicated since last summer that Trump agrees with Putin that territorial concessions are key to a ceasefire.
Zelenskyy insisted any US security guarantees must be ratified by Congress and last 30 years: “Because the presidents change, but institutions stay.”
On Trump’s demand for Ukrainian elections by summer, Zelenskyy pointed to practical obstacles — millions of refugees abroad, large parts of the country under occupation — but said: “If this is a condition for ending the war, let’s do it.”
He then challenged his partners: “You need to decide one thing: you want to get rid of me or you want to hold elections?”
Perhaps the starkest admission: Zelenskyy called air defense Ukraine’s “most difficult problem” and said partners still refuse licenses for Ukraine to produce Patriot systems or even missiles for systems it already has. Asked why, he said: “I don’t know. I have no answer.”
Meanwhile, BBC notes that while Trump has stopped almost all direct military aid shipments, the US still provides vital intelligence, and European countries are spending bn buying American weapons to transfer to Ukraine.
