Ukraine’s president tells POLITICO he wants more clarity on what the U.S. will do to guarantee any future peace with Russia.
KYIV — Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants Donald Trump to turn up the heat on Vladimir Putin — and stop piling pressure on him to agree to a truce after more than four years of war.
The Ukrainian leader said his people were “tired,” during an exclusive interview in the presidential palace in Kyiv with Gordon Repinski for POLITICO and Welt, but morale was still high and they were not ready to accept Russia’s ultimatums on handing over vast tracts of land in the east of the country.
Zelenskyy urged European leaders to come up with a Plan B to secure Ukraine’s long-term funding, to find a way to work around what he called the “blackmail” of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is holding up a promised EU loan of €90 billion.
POLITICO reported Wednesday that some Baltic and Nordic countries have a plan to give Ukraine enough money to keep it afloat through the first half of this year, even if Orbán maintains his veto.
But when it comes to peace negotiations, Zelenskyy was clear that Trump’s influence will still be key. “We need negotiations. We support them,” Zelenskyy said in the interview. “We don’t trust Russia, but I think, and I trust that Americans really want to finish with this war. I hope that they will help us, but we need more pressure on Russia, not on me.”
His comments come a week after Trump voiced renewed frustration with Zelenskyy, telling POLITICO that Ukraine’s leader needed to “get on the ball” and do a deal. Trump suggested he had more confidence in Putin’s willingness to negotiate a truce than Zelenskyy’s, without offering evidence for his view. “I think Putin is ready to make a deal,” Trump said.
Since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025 he has alarmed Kyiv and its European allies by appearing repeatedly to take Putin’s side, condemning Zelenskyy as a “dictator” and blaming him for starting the war, despite the fact that it was the Russian military that invaded in an unprovoked attack in February 2022.
Even so, talks with Trump’s envoys in December suggested the U.S. was ready to provide some form of security guarantee for Ukraine, which would underpin any peace deal. But there are still no details on what those promises would look like, Zelenskyy said.
“Be honest. For us, it’s very important, but we don’t have a clear answer,” he said.
“President Trump told me, ‘Do you trust that our security guarantees can be stronger than NATO?’ I said, ‘Yes, it depends on you for today. It depends on you, Mr. president. God bless if we will have stronger security guarantees than NATO. But what will be after you? And what will be after me?’” Zelenskyy said.
Security guarantees will require sign-off from national parliaments and the U.S. Congress to ensure they can’t be abandoned by future administrations, Zelenskyy said.
Trump has repeatedly claimed Zelenskyy has no “cards” to play in negotiations with Russia, but last week the dynamic changed, thanks to Trump’s decision to launch sustained military action against Iran.
Zelenksyy confirmed he is sending teams of drone warfare specialists to the Gulf to help America’s allies in the region defend themselves against Iranian bombardments with the uncrewed Shahed drones that Russia has been using against Ukraine for the past four years.
Zelenskyy hopes to secure a supply of top-of-the-range, American-made PAC-3 missiles for Patriot air defense systems in return, but also worries that these will be running short because they are being used by the U.S. military to defend the Gulf.
No final deals have been agreed, Zelenskyy said, and any negotiation is likely to be delicate. He acknowledged that Trump was correct to say that he “hates” Putin.
“Of course, I think we hate each other,” Zelenskyy said. “In this he [Trump] is right. Not in everything.”
Zelenskyy is also facing a challenge in shoring up support from his European backers, amid an ongoing feud with Hungary’s Orbán. Hungary and Slovakia are holding up a previously agreed €90 billion loan from willing EU countries to help prop up Ukraine’s economy and defense industry for the next couple of years.
Zelenskyy said he wanted the EU to come up with a Plan B in case Orbán’s “blackmail” could not be overcome before Kyiv’s resources run out.
“We and Europe, we all need this plan B,” he said. “Our European partners and real friends, they know that we defend not only Ukrainian values, we are defending freedom of all Europe.”
Asked if he’d gone too far in what was seen as a veiled physical threat he recently made against Orbán, Zelenskky said he didn’t believe “diplomatic silence” was “very helpful” when it came to dealing with the Hungarian prime minister.
He delivered some of his most outspoken criticism ever of Orbán’s attitude, slamming him for trying to block and then undo sanctions against Russia, and accusing him of “blackmail” over the EU’s loan.
Hungary and Slovakia want Zelenskyy to repair damage to the key Druzhba pipeline carrying Russian oil across Ukraine to their countries. Orbán accuses Zelenskyy of deliberately delaying the repairs for political reasons. But Zelenskyy insists the problem is Orbán, not the pipeline, which has been damaged by Russian bombing.
Hungary’s prime minister is “friends” and “strategic partners” with Russia, and is Putin’s “ally,” he said.
“He’s standing on the side of [the] Russian leader. He’s doing the same, blocking everything for Ukraine. Only one thing he doesn’t do today — he is not attacking by missiles or drones our territory,” Zelenskyy said of Orbán. “And he is not sending his soldiers.” But he is blocking funds for Ukraine, weapons for Ukraine, and opposing Ukraine’s accession to the EU, Zelenskyy added.
“And also with Russian narratives, he’s sharing the same narratives. He personally is doing this.”