Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, has said there is nothing personal between him and US President Donald Trump despite growing tensions between their countries, while warning that easing sanctions against Russia would strengthen Moscow and undermine efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
Zelensky made the remarks during an interview with CNN in Kyiv on Thursday, amid renewed diplomatic efforts by the Trump administration to negotiate an end to the four-and-a-half-year conflict.
Relations between Washington and Kyiv have deteriorated in recent weeks following Trump’s decision to announce a deal to purchase Russian fuel and waive some sanctions against Moscow.
The moves have drawn criticism from Ukraine and some members of Trump’s Republican Party.
Zelensky had previously described Trump as being “on the wrong side of history” over the developments.
However, he adopted a conciliatory tone during the CNN interview, stressing that his disagreement with the US president was about policy rather than personal differences.
“My attitude to Putin is very clear. I think that if we lift sanctions, we will make him stronger. It’s not something personal between me and President Trump, and of course I’m against of any lifting of sanctions.”
The Ukrainian leader’s comments came after US special envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Wednesday for three hours.
Witkoff had also met Zelensky in Norway a day earlier as Washington intensified efforts to broker a settlement.
Witkoff described Putin as a “humanitarian” following Russia’s release of 74-year-old American prisoner Stephen Hubbard.
Trump, meanwhile, argued that imposing additional sanctions could have jeopardised Hubbard’s release and complicated negotiations with Moscow.
“You could forget about him, you’d never see him again, he’d be back in jail for 25 years,” Trump said in response to a question from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
He also maintained that sanctions should not be tightened while negotiations were progressing, saying, “When you’re close to a deal and you have delicate negotiations, you don’t put sanctions on.”
Zelensky expressed doubts about Putin’s willingness to end the war, accusing the Russian leader of treating the conflict as a game while lives continued to be lost.
Putin has agreed to further talks in November but has provided few details about the proposed discussions.
“Putin is playing, you know, he is a player,” Zelensky said.
“It’s a pity because he plays with the lives of other people, and of course he doesn’t want (to stop the war). So what we want from our partners (is) not to give him a possibility to be stronger and break us.”
On the possibility of a ceasefire, Zelensky suggested that freezing the current front lines could provide an opportunity to halt the fighting and begin negotiations.
However, he ruled out Ukraine surrendering territory under its control or recognising areas occupied by Russia as Russian territory.
“Our land is very important because it’s about people. It’s not about kilometers,” he said. “A lot of people died defending this land, defending our independence, our country.”
“Nobody will recognize these territories, which are temporarily occupied, as Russian territories, and I think Russia understands it. It’s a pity if somebody doesn’t understand, but it’s up to them,” the Ukrainian president added.
The tensions have also affected military cooperation between Washington and Kyiv, with Ukraine previously accusing the US of restricting intelligence sharing on incoming Russian missiles, slowing down Starlink services and delaying weapons supplies.
Although Zelensky said intelligence sharing had been restored earlier in the week, he disclosed that Starshield, SpaceX’s military-grade satellite service, had yet to be fully restored.
Ukraine is also facing a shortage of interceptor missiles needed to shoot down incoming Russian ballistic missiles.
Zelensky said European allies had supplied some air defence missiles, but the deliveries remained insufficient to protect the country adequately.
He identified continued sanctions against Russia and additional military support as Ukraine’s immediate priorities.
Ukraine’s president said his country needed two things from its allies: “Not to lift sanctions from Putin … (and) to give us better missiles.”
