Russian President Vladimir Putin “has already begun” World War III, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He expressed his belief in an interview with the British broadcaster BBC. The conflict between Ukraine and Russia has been ongoing for over four years now. Ahead of the fourth anniversary, Zelenskyy spoke to the BBC in Kyiv over the weekend.
He said that his view of the conflict was different from that of the US President Donald Trump. “We have different views regarding a third world war,” he spoke in Ukrainian, and the interview was translated to English by the BBC. He said that he believed Putin had already started it (World War III). “The question is how much territory he will be able to seize and how to stop him,” he said.
Zelenskyy alleged that Russia wanted to impose a different way of life on the world and change the lives people have chosen for themselves. “Therefore, I believe and have long believed that Putin has already begun this war,” he said.
The Ukrainian President said that his country was preventing it from becoming a full-scale third world war. He also said, during the interview, that he was counting on reliable security guarantees from the United States, “that do not solely depend on the will of the US President.”
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Asked if he does not trust Trump, Zelenskyy argued that Presidents have fixed terms, and while they keep changing institutions do stay. Zelenskyy asserted that the aim was to retake his country's territories occupied by Russia, during this ongoing war and also return to the borders of Ukraine established in 1991, the year of its independence.
“Doing it now would mean losing a huge number of people, millions of people, because the Russian army is already and we understand the cost of such steps,” he said, “We would not have enough people, and we do not have sufficient weapons.”
He categorically rejected the cession of further territories in the Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions, which Russia has not been able to completely conquer.
“I don't look at it simply as land. I see it as abandonment, weakening our positions, abandoning hundreds of thousands of our people who live there. I am sure a withdrawal would divide our society,” Zelenskyy said.
The Ukrainian President's initial term in office has expired, and asked whether he would run for the presidency again in any new elections, Zelenskyy remarked that reliable security guarantees would be needed before such a vote to prevent manipulation of the election and to protect Ukraine permanently from Russian annexationist ambitions.
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