President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he tried to draw the attention of the White House to cooperation between russia and Iran regarding strikes on US bases. According to the President, there was no reaction of the US due to the United States' trust in russian dictator vladimir putin.
He said this in the podcast "The Rest is Politics" with Alastair Campbell, quoted by The Guardian.
Zelenskyy noted that russian military satellites have photographed critical energy infrastructure facilities in the Persian Gulf countries and in Israel, as well as the location of US military bases in the region. He said the Kremlin had passed detailed information and images to the Iranian regime to make it easier for it to carry out attacks.
"I said it publicly. Have we heard the US response to russia that they have to stop this? The problem is that they trust putin. And that's a shame," he said.
The President added that Donald Trump's team had failed to "really understand the details of what russia wants." Asked why that was, he said that two of Trump's negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, had "spent too much time" with putin and his top officials. They had visited Moscow five times last year but had not yet been to Kyiv.
Zelenskyy said he understood putin's psychology and his true military goals better than the White House. He stressed that putin would not stop if he got Donbas and would next try to seize regional centers, Dnipro and Kharkiv.
"We have to admit that some Americans believe that [the Donetsk Region] means nothing to us. They don't want to admit that putin will lie to them and that he can continue the occupation even after such steps. Americans are sure that they can trust putin," Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy also expressed the view that Europe needs to maximize its power at a time when the United States is threatening to withdraw from NATO. He said that the EU should join forces with Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Turkey and Norway to create a military bloc large enough to deter russia.
"Without Ukraine and Turkey, Europe will not have an army like the russian one. With Ukraine, Turkey, Norway and the United Kingdom, you will control security on the seas, not on one sea," he said, expressing confidence that Kyiv will one day join the EU.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Zelenskyy previously said that Ukraine must recognize that "we are not a priority" as US global priorities shift to wars in the Middle East. He expressed concern that the ongoing US-Israeli war against Iran could further weaken Washington's support for Ukraine.
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