Zelensky: US Has Taken Steps to Get Ukraine to Agree to Capitulation

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Bloomberg that US President Donald Trump is trying to force Ukraine to announce its capitulation to Russia.

"I think steps have been taken to get Ukraine to agree to capitulation. I am not saying that this is the goal our partners are trying to achieve. I do not want to think that our American partners believe the war against Russia could end faster at Ukraine's expense. However, that is exactly how it looks," Zelensky said.

He said he was ready to agree to Trump's demand to halt attacks on Russian oil refineries in exchange for Patriot-type air defense missiles.

"Now, dangerous days await us ahead of the elections. My latest model was this: we will not strike Russian diesel fuel, and you supply us with Patriot missiles to protect our facilities. But they simply want us to stop attacking diesel fuel, and if we do not do this, they will hold something back from us," Zelensky noted.

According to Zelensky, the US is delaying the delivery of missiles for the Patriot system, which are used to intercept Russian ballistic missiles.

"We paid for the weapons, including anti-ballistic missiles, under the so-called PURL program. The American side approved part of the delivery, and the rest, no. And this is not a technical issue," Zelensky said.

He explained that the US currently supplies Ukraine with only 12 Patriot system missiles per month, which is about four times fewer than during the administration of Joe Biden. Under the Trump administration, Ukraine buys these missiles, while Biden would have transferred them to it free of charge as military aid.

Asked how he would characterize efforts to repair relations with the US, Zelensky replied: "I think when the potential risks for Ukraine are on the scale of a tsunami, action should have begun while it was still only a light storm. I believe much more is at stake here than the deal related to diesel fuel".