By Clarissa Ward, Ivana Kottasová, CNN
Kyiv (CNN) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a plea to Donald Trump on Monday, telling CNN he wants the US president “to stay on our side.”
Speaking at the Presidential Palace in Kyiv on the eve of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky said the United States is far too big and too important to walk away from the conflict. And he hopes that Trump, during his State of the Union address Tuesday, will back Ukraine as it fights back against the Russia of President Vladimir Putin.
“They have to stay with … a democratic country which is fighting against one person. Because this person is a war. Putin is a war. It’s all about himself. It’s all about one person. And the country, all his country is in the prison,” Zelensky told CNN.
“If they really want to stop Putin, America’s so strong,” he said. Asked if he believes Trump is putting enough pressure on Putin, Zelensky said, “No.”
In a wide-ranging and — at times — emotional interview, Zelensky acknowledged that Ukrainians are exhausted by the conflict. But giving in to Putin’s demands is simply not an option, he said.
“We can’t just give him everything he wants. Because he wants to occupy us. If we will give him all he wants, we will lose everything — all of us, people will have to run away or be Russian.”
As the war enters its fifth year, trilateral peace talks involving Ukraine, Russia and the United States have not yet led to a breakthrough.
Zelensky told CNN that security guarantees, especially the issue of how Ukraine’s allies would react if Russia invaded Ukraine again in the future, remain a sticking point.
He said he keeps being told that Russia simply would not start another war. “This is not the answer to me. I’m sorry,” he said.
“We have good things in these security guarantees, it’s true,” he said of the promises currently on the table. “But I want (a) very specific answer: what (our) partners will be ready to do if Putin will come again. This is what Ukrainians want to hear,” he said.
There is also a disagreement about the sequence of steps toward peace, Zelensky said. Trump wants Zelensky to sign a peace agreement with Russia and a deal with the United States and European nations that gives Ukraine its security guarantees all in one go, ideally in a big ceremony marking the end of the war.
But Zelensky is adamant that security guarantees must be agreed and ratified by the US Congress first. He said this would give the Ukrainian people the confidence that they could rely on their allies in the future — because they have been let down too many times in the past.
Speaking about another thorny issue, Zelensky told CNN that Ukraine is willing to freeze the war at the current front lines. But he said the Ukrainian military would not withdraw from the areas of the eastern Donetsk region that are still under its control.
Russia is demanding that Ukraine relinquish the roughly 20% of the region that is still under Kyiv’s control, including the “fortress belt” of industrial cities, railways and roads that form the backbone of Ukraine’s defense and supply the front line.
“Russia wants (us) just to withdraw our army. … We can’t be such, sorry, foolish guys. We are not children. We went through this war, during all these years, and so we just, we can’t give them the country on (a) plate,” he said.
“For people who live there, it’s very important what security they will have … 200,000 people live there,” Zelensky said. “What do I have to say (to them) and what (do) our soldiers have to say — ‘Okay, bye, bye. We go away. You are R