Zelenskyy: ‘Free World, Democrats’ is’ waiting for Trump to bring peace in Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz his country was ready for a ceasefire mediated by the United States, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin was aimed at “total defeat” of Ukraine.

In an exclusive sitting interview in Kyiv with Raddatz, ABC News Co-Uncelor “this week,” Zelenskyy said Putin was not interested in peace and that only “hard pressure” led by the US and joining European allies would make Putin become “Pragmatic” in his thinking.

“Then they will stop the war,” said Zelenskyy.

“I am sure that the President of the United States has all the strength and enough influence to step,” Zelenskyy told Raddatz.

Zelenskyy’s request for the end of the battle in Ukraine-Pestan which was consistent since Russia launched a full scale invasion in February 2022 when Russia bombarded Ukraine, launched 472 drones last week.

Ukraine Air Force said it was The biggest drone attack from war.

“Maybe people don’t realize it,” said Zelenskyy. “They must understand that we are under the attack, attacked every day. And you might remember that when they talk about a ceasefire, a temporary ceasefire[s]They are still attacking and launching attacks. “

‘Spiderweb’ operation: ‘We have to prepare such a plan, and we don’t stop’

Raddatz reporting in Ukraine came a week after the country might take the most significant offensive action in the war when hitting the Russian airfield as far as Siberia in a coordinated and surprising drone attack said by Ukraine destroyed one third of Russian strategic bombers, or about 40 aircraft.

The US assessed that Ukraine damaged far less aircraft, estimating 10 Russian aircraft to be destroyed in the attack, a US official told ABC News.

Zelenskyy told Raddatz that he saw the video “that the whole world watched” after the attack – the recording showing the Ukraine drone that emerged from containers, including mobile huts transported by Russian vehicles.

Russian drivers “don’t know anything,” and the operation only used Ukraine weapons, said the President of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy recorded a secret operation, planned for more than 18 months and was nicknamed “Spiderweb Operation,” only scored military targets and was intended to improve the position of Ukraine on the negotiating table.

“We can only fight” Russian aggression “with strength,” Zelenskyy said, “and we understand if [Ukraine’s special services could] Take a few steps, we can stop [Russia] On their path, and maybe then they will be ready for a kind of diplomacy and conversation. “

The US has held bilateral talks with each of Ukraine and Russia since President Donald Trump served, and the delegation of the two warring countries had gathered together in Istanbul only on Monday, the day after the Spiderweb operation.

Kremlin called a broad attack as an act of terrorism, the accusation was rejected by Zelenskyy.

“He [a] Clean and clear military operations. This is a step that shows everyone that we don’t want this war. We don’t want to fight, “he said.

“We have to prepare a plan like that, and we don’t stop,” he added. “Because … we don’t have an estimate [tomorrow will bring]. We are not really knowing whether they will stop this war. “

Zelenskyy supports unconditional ceasefire, rejecting the characterization of Trump’s ‘playground’ from the war

Zelenskyy called for a ceasefire during the discussion, telling Raddatz that Ukraine was ready to put his arm unconditionally – if Russia also wanted.

Ukraine will forget the security guarantees of the US, which they call it important if they are not invited to join the North Atlantic agreement organization, and receive a cessation of hostility for 30 days, said Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy consistently suggested diplomacy, and the power to end the war, will flow through the White House, where in February Trump scolded Zelenskyy had “no cards” in a discussion of peace settlement.

Clear tension like that was not seen in an oval office meeting between Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday, where Trump said the war in Ukraine was like “two small children who struggled like crazy” and “sometimes you better let them fight for a while and then pull them separately.”

Merz pushed back the President’s statement, and Zelenskyy said he also questioned him.

“President Zelenskyy, you speak very strongly about losses in your country and what your people suffer,” Raddatz told Zelenskyy in Kyiv only two days later. “Do you think the president received the message when he said things like ‘those two children who fight’?”

Zelenskyy described the “unlimited” pain of an Ukraine man who lost his children and his wife in a missile attack.

Zelenskyy said that the man told him that he “looked for them only beside me” in his flat still after they died. “And they are not there. … I still feel that it is a nightmare. That’s not real. It’s a dream, a bad dream.”

“Are people who haven’t lost their children feel like that? Maybe not,” said Zelenskyy. “Can the president in America feel exactly like this father? No.”

He closed the anecdote with a strong rejection of Trump’s analogy for war.

“We are not children with Putin in a playground in the park. This is why I say he is a killer who came to this park to kill children,” he said.

Zelenskyy suggested that his relationship with Trump had improved since the two presidents met a month during Trump’s presidency in the Oval office, where Zelenskyy told Raddatz “The camera is not lying.”

The leader of Ukraine admitted that the meeting did not help, saying he was “emotional” when he went to Washington “defending the truth.”

But their April meeting at the Vatican, where the two leaders attended the funeral of Pope Francis, “productive,” said Zelenskyy.

“Fifteen minutes in the Vatican, tet-a-tet, one-to-one … doing more to build trust than meetings with many people present at the Oval office,” he added.

He said he is now “Want[s] To believe that we have a normal and equal professional relationship. “

However, Zelenskyy said he did not agree with Trump’s view of Putin’s intention in Ukraine.

“President Trump tells us Terry Moran In an interview that he believes Putin wants peace, “said Raddatz.” You think he’s wrong. “

“With all respect to President Trump, of course – I think it is only his personal opinion,” said Zelenskyy. “I feel strong that Putin does not want to finish this war. In his mind, it is impossible to end this war without a total defeat of Ukraine.

“Believe me, we understand that Russia is much better, the Russian mentality, rather than Americans, understands the Russian mentality. We have been neighbors for centuries,” the president of the war, who was elected in 2019, told Raddatz.

Asked to characterize Trump’s relationship with Putin, Zelenskyy said it was “longer” than his 45th and 47th American president, showing their involvement in preceding Trump’s election as president.

“I think for Trump, the business is important,” he said, signaled the power in what he called the president’s “economy” relationship with Putin and even diplomacy at this time.

“For Trump, it is important to expand the geopolitical relationship between America and the Soviet Union at that time,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy called for US sanctions, ‘intermediaries’ to produce a ceasefire

The President of Ukraine took action for his allies in the war, supporting the crippling sanctions package led by Senator Lindsey Graham, Hospital.C., Allies Trump, who will slap a 500% tariff in any country that buys Russian energy products.

“No problem who wants, regardless of the United States, to apply sanctions to Russia,” said Zelenskyy. “If not the United States, there will be no real impact.”

Zelenskyy said Kyiv had received a ceasefire proposal under the government of Trump and Biden and noted that Moscow had refused every offer. While he argues that peace can only be “sustainable and long” through “strong security guarantees,” said Ukraine will be willing to stop fighting without swearing the US to maintain it in the future of Russia.

“Do we like the ceasefire without security guarantees?” Said Zelenskyy. “Not too much, but still, we support it.”

Ukraine has been invited to the upcoming NATO Summit in the Hague in the Netherlands, Secretary General of NATO Mark Rutte word this week. Trump will be present for high -risk meetings, the White House said.

Zelenskyy framed his case for US pressure on Russia in history, telling Raddatz that “most of the war ended even at the stage when both parties, both parties, did not trust each other.”

“There is an intermediary, there is a strong position of the third country … if it is not a complete capitulation [as with] Germany at the end of the second world war, “he said.” Most of the wars were finished with several types of agreements … [with] A strong third party is involved that can suppress aggressors. “

He described the “long after” war between a battered party, and he begged “pressure” in Moscow several times throughout the interview with Raddatz.

“Is there a lever and enough power to stop this in the United States? Yes, I am sure that the President of the United States has all the strengths and influences that are sufficient to move,” said Zelenskyy.

“He can unite around him other couples such as European leaders,” he concluded. “They [are] All view President Trump as a free world leader, a free and democratic world, and they are waiting for him. “