Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview published Sunday that outgoing President Joe Biden was hesitant to preemptively impose sanctions on Russia ahead of a full-scale invasion of his country in 2022. He lamented that he threatened to impose sanctions on Russia only if the invasion became “haphazard.”
In a three-hour interview with podcaster Rex Friedman, President Zelenskiy made the comments expressed by the Ukrainian government-run United 24 platform:bold” and frankly focused much of his time on the ongoing invasion of Kyiv and U.S.-Kyiv relations under both Biden and President-elect Donald Trump.
Ukraine has been at war in some form with Russia and its proxies for more than a decade, ever since Russia colonized Ukraine's Crimea peninsula under President Barack Obama in 2014. The “annexation” of Crimea is accompanied by an ongoing war in the eastern region of Donbass, which began as a conflict between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists, but from 2022 onwards will become a direct war between Russian forces and Ukraine. It became. Zelenskiy, a comedian with no political experience, is seen as “pro-European” in the West, and Zelenskiy won the 2019 presidential election largely because of worsening public sentiment against the corrupt regime. branded “Pro-Russian”
As president, Mr. Zelensky maintained a friendly relationship with then-President Donald Trump, which remains so, but he has since struggled to forge a functional relationship with Mr. Biden. Russia's “special operation” to oust Mr. Zelenskiy in February 2022 was accompanied by sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project that would have squeezed Russia's natural gas sales to much of Western Europe. This preceded Biden's decision last summer to lift the law.
The Nord Stream project came to an abrupt end in September 2022 when multiple mysterious underwater explosions destroyed the pipeline.
In his interview with Fridman, Zelenskiy recalled that he was enraged by Biden and his European allies' refusal to lift sanctions and impose further sanctions on Russia to strip Russia of resources to invade Ukraine.
“My main request to the United States is one thing: If you are sure, if you have evidence, talk to him.” [Putin] “If you are afraid, he says, there will be invasions. All I have asked for is two things: send us weapons, or, if possible, strengthen us with precautions so that war does not break out.” Please,” he explained.
“I wasn't looking for weapons, I was looking for sanctions. Intimidate him,” he stressed. “Don't say, 'If he comes, if he crosses the border, if he kills, we will impose sanctions.'” Well, this is complete bullshit. Sorry, but it's true. ”
President Zelenskiy added sarcastically that Kiev had not received any meaningful aid from Western countries in the run-up to the 2022 invasion. “If you assume that words help, then you're right, because there were plenty of them.”
The six months leading up to February 2022 were marked by high-profile public attention to tensions between Biden and Zelensky. It all started when Zelenskiy gave an explosive interview to Axios in Washington, D.C., in which he claimed to have learned that Biden had lifted Trump's Nord Stream sanctions. he said on television, lamenting that empowering Russia's natural gas industry was a direct national security threat to Ukraine.
“I still understand that Nord Stream 2 is a weapon, a real weapon. I am speaking openly about it,” Zelenskiy said at the time. “This weapon is in the hands of the Russian Federation, but it is not very understandable, but it is not at all expected, that the bullets for this weapon could be provided by a great country like the United States.”
“You know, we had this first conversation with President Biden. It was a phone conversation, but I got all the signals. They were direct signals, so I was very happy. “It was,” he continued. “Biden knows Ukraine better than any other former president and therefore understands all the issues and, most importantly, all the security risks. So, again, We had a very unpleasant surprise.”
Zelenskiy went on in the interview to accuse Biden of being willing to sacrifice Ukrainian lives to appease Germany, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Nord Stream project.
In December 2021, two months before Russia's “special operation,” President Zelenskiy denounced the lack of sanctions against Russia, using language very similar to this week's interview with President Fridman.
“As for the sanctions policy, some leaders are proposing response formats in response to the increased likelihood that the Russian side will introduce a strong sanctions policy (…),” European leaders said at the time. He said this after a meeting with. “Here, I think we were able to explain to our European colleagues that the subsequent sanctions policy (due to such an escalation) is not important to anyone.”
“Our country has an interest in implementing strong sanctions policies in advance of potential escalation, which may also prevent this escalation from occurring,” he argued.
The “strong sanctions policy'' did not materialize, and escalation occurred. In an interview this weekend, President Zelenskiy expressed optimism about replacing the guard in the White House with a president who has a reputation for imposing lenient sanctions on international wrongdoers.
“I love President Trump's message of peace through strength. That's very important. If you're strong, you can speak. And we need to be strong,” Zelenskiy told Fridman. “Does President Putin want to end the war?” I'm sorry, that's naive. The only thing he understands is fear and strength. ”
Zelenskyy also reflected negatively on his last attempt at dialogue with Putin.
“December 2019, at the Elysée Palace in Normandy and Paris. [French President Emmanuel] Mr Macron, [then-German Chancellor Angela] “Merkel, Putin and I agreed on a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange,” he recalled. “Putin wasn't deeply involved in the issue and didn't seem to care about the details. But he knew all the details when gas to Europe came up — Chancellor Angela Merkel That's what I asked you to tell me.”
The Normandy Quad talks in December 2019 completely failed to stop the ongoing war in Ukraine. Mr. Zelenskyy told reporters at the time that he left the talks trampled and that the talks were of little use.
“Look, it's very difficult to negotiate.” [with Putin]But today there was a moment when we agreed on something, certain things,” Zelenskiy explained. “That's because he analyzes every question in detail and then we start considering every word. Yes, this is difficult. I'm just a different person, I'm a fast person. Right away I thought I could sit there and trade…but it's different here, the biomechanics are different, so to speak.”
“My counterparts say it's a very good result for a first meeting. But to be honest, it's just a small thing. I would have liked to have resolved more issues,” he said. says. said.
President Putin called the meeting “very useful” at the time.
In April 2021, President Zelenskiy suggested that Ukraine needed “serious” countries, not France or Germany, to mediate talks with President Putin.
