Volodymyr Zelensky said Donald Trump risks becoming a “loser president” if he wins the November election and imposes a bad peace deal on Ukraine, which would mark the end of the United States as a global “player”.
Speaking to The Guardian in Kiev, Zelensky said there was “no playbook yet” for what to do if Trump returned to the White House, and that former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had approached him on his behalf.
Trump is widely expected to end US military aid to Ukraine if he wins against Joe Biden, having boasted last year that he could end the war in “24 hours”.
Trump’s advisers have previously floated the idea of ceding eastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula to Russia, but Zelenskiy made it clear that “the Ukrainian people will not accept that,” and that he would not accept a Russian “ultimatum” to force Ukraine to abandon its European integration and future NATO membership, he said.
Zelensky acknowledged that if a re-elected Trump really wanted to, he could inflict a crushing military defeat on Ukraine: He could cut off “aid, weapons and funding” and even make a “deal” with Kiev’s partners to cut off vital arms supplies.
“Ukraine cannot fight millions of enemies without weapons and with its bare hands. [Russian] “The army,” Zelensky told the Guardian.
Speaking inside the Oval Office, Zelensky said the scenario was unlikely to happen, but that if it did happen it would have serious consequences for America’s standing in the world and for Trump personally. “Does he want to be a loser president? Does he know what’s coming?” Zelensky said.
He predicted that President Vladimir Putin would violate any agreement brokered by Trump. “The ceasefire is a trap,” he said. After the pause, Putin will “go further,” he said, humiliating Trump and making him look “very weak” in the eyes of the world.
Zelenskiy continued: “This is not about him. [Trump]”The United States is no longer the world leader. Not as individuals, but as American institutions. The institutions will be very weak. The United States is no longer the world leader. Yes, the United States will be strong domestically, because it has a strong economy, no doubt about it, but in terms of international influence it will be next to zero.”
Zelenskyy recognised that Washington was no longer a “player” and suggested that other, mostly authoritarian, countries and leaders would “enter the playing field” and emulate Putin’s aggressive “approach”.
And this will ultimately end in a global catastrophe. “This is the beginning of what everyone is afraid to talk about. This is reality. And this is the real World War III.”
Asked whether Johnson had spoken to Trump on Ukraine’s behalf, Zelensky said: “I think he tried to, I think he spoke, to the best of my knowledge, I think he did.”
He added: “I feel bad that Boris is being used as a tool.”
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The plan comes as Kyiv tries to lobby pro-Trump Republicans in Congress to persuade them to drop their opposition to aid for Ukraine, a $61 billion military aid package that was passed in April after a six-month delay.
Zelensky’s comments came the day before a New York jury on Thursday found Trump guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records. The verdict in the hush money trial made Trump the first former president in the United States’ nearly 250-year history to be convicted of a felony.
In 2019, as president, Trump called Zelensky to ask him to investigate his rival for the White House and Biden’s son, Hunter. According to a leaked transcript of the call, Trump suggested that U.S. security aid to Ukraine would be withheld if Zelensky couldn’t find corruption in Hunter Biden. The scandal led to Trump’s first impeachment.
Zelensky said he had invited Trump to visit Ukraine. “I would like to have a frank discussion with him. I would like him to come and see the war with his own eyes. And I would like to talk to him. I think that’s necessary for him to understand the situation better,” he said.
Zelensky said he understood Trump “knows” Putin, based on the former president’s own “statements.” The two have met at diplomatic summits. Trump has previously called the Russian leader a “genius” and described his planned full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 as “pretty astute.”
Zelensky said communicating with Putin is not the same as knowing him, adding that to better understand him, Trump should “look at the results he has brought to Ukraine” – referring to the destruction of towns and cities, the killing of civilians and daily bombardment by Russian missiles.
