“Putin has already started World War III and it is necessary to stop him”

The Russian leader Vladimir Putin demands, among other things, that Ukraine withdraw its troops and recognize the annexation of the four regions that Moscow claims (Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia), including the parts it does not yet fully control.

This is a price that Zelensky is not willing to pay: “We are not going to withdraw from strategic territories that Russia has not been able to capture despite sacrifice tens of thousands of soldiers“he admitted.

Under the vision of the Ukrainian leader, Putin wants to “impose a different lifestyle on the world.” Accessing their territorial claims would be a way of abandoning hundreds of thousands of compatriots to the Moscow designs: “Peace may come in the short term, but in a couple of years, as soon as Russia has recovered, the war will continue,” he said.

Las ceasefire talks In Geneva they have the support of President Trump who pushes the parties to negotiate. “Ukraine better come to the table quickly,” he recently declared. Analysts believe that it puts more pressure on this country than on Russia. Western diplomats have indicated since last summer that Trump agrees with Putin that territorial concessions are the key to a ceasefire.

What is victory?

In everyone’s mind are the reproaches that he dedicated to the Ukrainian president on his first visit to the White Housebut Zelensky does not want to give up. “Will we lose? Of course not! We are fighting for our independence,” he said. Another question is how victory is defined.

First of all, it is to stop the killing and recover normal life on the streets, but there is a broader vision that revolves around the global threat that, according to him, comes from Putin: “I think stopping Putin today is a victory for the whole world, because he will not stop here. Europe is threatened,” he said.

When the question of return to the initial bordersthose that existed before the invasion of February 24, 2022, Zelensky admits that the cost in human lives would be unaffordable at this time. In addition, Ukraine is completely dependent on its partners for weapons supplies and relations with the United States have cooled in the last year.

Since the White House meeting in February 2025, Zelensky has avoided public confrontations with Trump. The president of the United States has stopped almost all shipments of military aid to Ukraine, although his country continues to provide vital intelligence for the conduct of the war.

In addition, Europe is spending billions on buying weapons from the Americans to give them to Ukraine: “The problem is air defense. Our partners do not grant us licenses to produce the systems ourselves, for example, the Patriot,” denounced the Ukrainian leader.

Trump himself declared last February through his social network that Zelensky was a “dictator without elections.” This issue has been raised repeatedly, as a way to guarantee transparency in a peace process.

“If this is a condition for ending the war, let’s do it,” the Ukrainian president said. “If you want to hold elections, then hold these elections honestly, so that the Ukrainian people and yourselves recognize that they are legitimate,” he added.

The ultimate question is whether he believes Putin is willing to end this war: “Yes and no,” he said. “We’ll see. He doesn’t want to, but not wanting doesn’t mean he won’t do it,” he concluded.