As his troops fight on the front lines to fend off an onslaught of Russian aggression, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urges the United States and Europe to do more to defend his country, dismissing concerns about a nuclear escalation and advising NATO aircraft Shooting down a Russian missile in Ukraine.
Zelensky said he also called on senior U.S. officials to allow Ukraine to launch U.S. missiles and other weapons at military targets in Russia — a tactic the U.S. remains opposed to. He insisted that the inability to do this gave Russia a “huge advantage” in the cross-border war, which it was using to launch attacks in northeastern Ukraine.
His remarks in an interview with The New York Times in central Kiev on Monday were among his strongest calls yet for more help from the United States and its NATO allies. He spoke for more than 50 minutes in the presidential palace’s ornate Chimera House, expressing frustration and confusion about the West’s reluctance to take bolder steps to ensure Ukraine’s victory.
Zelensky has long lobbied the West, particularly for more weapons. But his request this week comes at a critical moment in the war in Ukraine, where Ukrainian troops are retreating and new U.S. weapons have yet to arrive in sufficient quantities. Analysts say Ukraine has never faced such a severe military challenge since the early days of the war.
This is also a critical moment in Ukrainian politics. Zelensky delivered the speech on the final day of his five-year presidential term. Elections scheduled for March were suspended because of the war, and he will continue to serve as president under martial law, likely to last as long as the war.
In the wide-ranging interview, Mr Zelensky, 46, discusses the painful grief of visiting mass graves and consoling families of fallen soldiers, as well as his own personal experiences and the lessons he has learned from his short time “Charge”. He said he wanted to read more, but fell asleep too quickly at night and couldn’t read very far.
He was most excited when he laid out a list of actions he believed allies should take to support Ukraine. He argued that NATO should shoot down Russian missiles flying over Ukraine – planes should not enter Ukrainian airspace – and said this would be a purely defensive strategy and would not pose the risk of direct combat with Russian forces.
“So my question is, what’s the problem? Why can’t we shoot them down? Is it defense? Yes. Is this an attack on Russia? No. No. There is no such problem.
“Shoot down the object over Ukraine,” he added. “And provide us with weapons to fight Russian forces on the border.”
Analysts say such direct involvement by NATO could provoke Russian retaliation, but it has been resisted by Western countries. But Zelensky compared how the United States and Britain helped Israel shoot down a series of drones and missiles from Iran last month.
“This is what we are seeing in Israel,” Mr Zelensky said. “Not even on this scale.” The White House responded to the comparison at the time by saying, “Different conflict, different airspace, different threat profile.”
Zelensky also urged the alliance to provide more F-16 fighter jets and Patriot air defense systems.
“Can we get seven?” He said Ukraine needed more Patriot systems but would be content with that number to protect areas vital to the country’s economy and energy sector. He said a decision could be made when NATO leaders hold a summit in Washington in July.
“Do you think this is too much for the NATO anniversary summit in Washington?” he asked. “For a country today fighting for freedom and democracy around the world?”
Asked about potential ceasefire talks, he called for a diplomatic approach that would avoid direct negotiations with Russia and instead unite countries behind Ukraine’s position to achieve a final peace settlement. First came a plan to secure Ukrainian food exports to developing countries, a prisoner exchange, measures to secure a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, and the return of Ukrainian children he said had been abducted and taken to Russia.
He said he hoped dozens of countries would support the initiative when they gather in Switzerland for a “peace summit” in mid-June. He again urged Ukraine to join NATO.
He also welcomed recent suggestions from some allies that NATO send troops to train in Ukraine or support Ukrainian forces, but added, “I don’t see that other than rhetoric.”
More directly, he said the ability to use Western-supplied weapons to strike military targets in Russia was critical to Ukraine’s success.
He said that only by using these weapons to destroy logistical hubs in Russia and Russian aircraft on Russian territory could Ukraine effectively defend against the recent attacks in the northeast that threatened Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv.
“How do we respond when they attack our cities?” he said, noting that Ukraine could see Russian troops massing across the border before launching attacks but was unable to fight them.
“They conducted it calmly,” he added, “understanding that our partners would not allow us” to use their weapons in retaliation.
Zelensky said the main reason for Western hesitation – fear of nuclear escalation – was exaggerated because Russian President Vladimir V. Putin would not use nuclear weapons out of a sense of self-preservation.
“He may not be rational, but he loves his life,” Zelensky said.
He also said there is another reason for the West’s hesitation: some countries are seeking to maintain trade and diplomatic relations with Russia. “Everyone leaves their doors slightly ajar,” he said.
Zelensky’s campaign has endured a tumultuous period. He was elected in 2019 on a platform of peace talks with Russia, but his critics called that approach naive. He also pledged to fight corruption and pledged to serve for only five years.
Zelensky was a television personality who before becoming president alternated between using diplomacy to drum up support for Ukraine and admonishing soldiers and civilians about the deteriorating military outlook. He said he rarely had time to visit his 11- and 19-year-old sons and daughters, but he called the time he spent with them “the happiest moments.”
“For example, I asked my son what happened,” he said. “He said they were starting to learn Spanish. I was interested in that. I don’t know Spanish, but honestly, I was just interested in spending time with him, no matter what he was doing.
“These are the moments that recharge you and give you energy. These are the happiest moments. Then I can relax.
He said he also exercises in the morning to replenish his energy and tries to read in the evening. “Honestly, any kind of novel, I’ll read it at night, two pages, three pages, four pages, ten pages at most, and then I fall asleep,” he said.
Asked what he would do after the war, he pondered for a moment, appearing to consider the prospect of a Russian victory. “After the war, after victory, these are different things,” he said. “Things might have been different. I guess my plan depends on that.
“So, I want to believe that Ukraine is going to win. It’s not going to be easy, it’s going to be very difficult. Obviously it’s going to be very difficult. I just want to spend some time with my family and my dog.
Zelensky’s presidency experienced a critical moment early in the war when Russia attempted and failed to carry out a beheading attack on the Ukrainian leader in Kiev.
Now, nearly 17 months later, it’s unclear how or when his presidential term will end. Martial law in Ukraine is regularly renewed through congressional votes, ruling out the possibility of holding a presidential election. Although his Servant of the People party holds a majority, party discipline has reportedly broken down in recent months and Zelensky has struggled to push the bill through.
After the initial shock of the invasion, 90 percent of Ukrainians said they trusted Mr. Zelensky; by February, that number had dropped to 60 percent, according to a poll by the International Institute of Sociology in Kyiv.
Competitive national elections have been a major success for Ukrainian politics since independence in 1991, delivering on the promise of democratic transition that failed to materialize in Russia, Belarus and some countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus.
International election experts support Ukraine’s decision to suspend voting during the war because millions of Ukrainians will be unable to vote in occupied areas, as European refugees or as soldiers serving on the front lines.
Asked to assess the health of democracy in Ukraine, he said, “Ukraine does not need to prove anything about democracy to anyone.”
“Because Ukraine and its people are going to war to prove it,” he continued. “No words, no unnecessary rhetoric, no rhetorical messages floating in the air. They proved it with their lives.
Bill Brinker and Philip Pan Reporting from Kiev.
