Zelensky hopes that we will remain “strong” in the face of Russian requests

Jeremy Bowen

International publisher in Paris

Watch: BBC questions Zelensky about Russian conditions for a cease-fire contract

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he hoped that the United States “would be strong in the face of Russian requests to raise sanctions as a condition for a cease-fire in the Black Sea.

Moscow said that a maritime truce announced on Tuesday to allow a safe passage for commercial ships only once Western restrictions on food and fertilizer in Russia have been lifted.

Zelensky spoke during an interview with panel in Paris with journalists from all over Europe.

Questioned by the BBC if the United States would resist Russian pressure, he said, “I hope yes. May God bless you, they will do it. But we will see.”

The White House said on Tuesday that Russian and Ukrainian delegations had accepted a cease-fire in the Black Sea after three days of separate talks with American officials in Saudi Arabia.

But a few hours later, the Kremlin published its own declaration, including a list of conditions.

Its requests include the revocation of Western sanctions against the financial institutions involved in agricultural trade and the restoration of their access to the SWIFT international payment system – a network that facilitates secure financial messaging.

Trump said the US government “considered” “” Moscow's demand for the restrictions to be lifted, but the EU said on Wednesday that it would not plan to remove the sanctions before the “unconditional” withdrawal of Russian troops from the international territory of Ukraine.

Addressing the Paris panel, Zelensky said he was “very grateful” for the bipartite support of the United States, but that he feared that some were “under the influence of Russian stories”.

“We cannot accept these stories,” he said.

When asked if US President Donald Trump had a closer relationship with him or Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelensky said he didn't know.

“I don't know-it's difficult for me to say,” he said. “I don't know what relationships he has, I don't know how many conversations he had.”

The Ukrainian leader was also asked about the comments of Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, who rejected Europe's efforts to create a “desire coalition” to support Ukraine in an interview last week.

In response, Zelensky said he would not be “in a hurry to conclusions”.

He said that Witkoff, who has real estate development training, had not “had this experience”.

“As far as I know, he knows very well how to buy and sell real estate, but it's somewhat different,” he said.

He also said that Europe had “strengthened considerably” during the war.

Zelensky says that Americans are under the influence of Russian stories

The BBC also asked Zelensky how he would remember him in history books: the man who had saved Ukraine, or the man who dropped him?

“I don't know what history books will write about me,” he said. “This is not my goal or my goal.”

He said that his goal was rather to defend Ukraine and see his children “walk along their exit without hiding”.

“I will do everything I can until the end of my days to defend Ukraine as much as possible,” he added.

On the question of whether Ukraine should be authorized to join NATO, Zelensky said that his nation “hardened” would make the alliance stronger, although he noted that the Trump administration had excluded membership in Kyiv.

The interview took place shortly after Zelensky met the French president Emmaunuel Macron in Paris, where the Eiffel Tower was lit in the colors of the Ukrainian flag in his honor.

The president of Ukraine returned to Europe to rally his allies and convince them to take the threat of Putin seriously.

They do it now, some could even say to rush to do it, but have already relied on the Americans to make the big dupbage in terms of military capacity.

After all that Trump said in the past two months, Europeans realize that Americans are not there in the future, which has concentrated their mind.

President Zelensky's challenge is to make them pass hard cash commitments rather than simple feelings.

His meeting with Macron has already proven fruitful, the French president announcing a new package of $ 2 billion (2.2 billion dollars; 1.6 billion) of military aid for the nation torn by the war.

Referring to the Kremlin's request to raise sanctions, Macron said that Moscow could not “dictate the conditions” for peace, adding that it was too early to consider raising the European sanctions against Russia.

It is a rally of European leaders in Paris on Thursday to discuss the war in Ukraine.

The “coalition of volunteers” which does not include the United States tries to agree on what European countries and other nations could offer to maintain a future ceasefire, if we had to be agreed.

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