Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed President Donald Trump’s claim that Russia is genuinely interested in peace, saying he’s confident Vladimir Putin wants the war to continue.
In an interview on ABC’s This Week with Martha Raddatz, Zelenskyy said Trump’s view is merely a personal opinion and emphasized that Ukrainians have a deeper understanding of Russian behavior than Americans. “I know for sure Putin doesn’t want to stop the war,” he said. Zelenskyy also criticized Trump’s comparison of the Russia-Ukraine conflict to children fighting in a park, saying such analogies trivialize the reality of war. “Putin is not a kid. He’s a murderer who came to the park to kill kids,” Zelenskyy said, referencing a Ukrainian man who lost his entire family in a missile strike.
Trump had previously used the playground analogy during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, suggesting that sometimes it’s better to let two sides fight before intervening. So far, Ukraine and Russia have held two rounds of talks with little progress.
