AJ
Sky News spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, first touching on the Kremlin’s claims that Ukraine was trying to get a nuclear weapon via Britain and France, to which Zelensky replied that he didn’t have proposition…but with pleasure – and when Sky News asked whether that could be put to bed, Zelensky replied saying that it’s not happening.
Speaking about giving up territory, Zelensky said: “If we withdraw from this territory like you said, for example Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, at this very moment 200,000 people who are there now will be occupied by Russians who say to Russians that these people are ready to be Russian people, and if they don’t, they will kill them or push them to the front or push them to prison – they did the same steps in Luhansk, Donetsk and Crimea.”
Zelensky also said that he was not playing games with Putin: “I’m ready to meet and I’m ready to speak, but not in Russia and not in Belarus, because they are allies during this war – Belarus is a passive aggressor – they attacked us from the territory of Belarus.”
Speaking about the US involvement, Zelensky said: “For Americans, it’s difficult to understand the Russian mentality – when they lie and when they tell the truth – I said once to Jared and to Steve, honestly, it’s more simple to recognise that they lie every time, and it’s simpler to speak with them if you know that they lie, you begin to manage an initiative in your hands.”
In terms of elections, Zelensky responded saying that he had a question: “Why are elections in Ukraine so important for Russians and Americans, and not important for Ukrainians?”
Asked about how the Ukrainian President spends his personal time, Zelensky responded: “I don’t have too much free time, but I can live with it already – I sleep with music, only this way – sometimes training, sometimes good exercises – if you have 15 minutes, good; 25 minutes, better; 40 minutes great, and I’m trying to do it four or five times a week – it doesn’t matter where.”
