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Trump ‘capable of stopping Putin or, to put it more fairly, help us stop Putin’, says Zelensky
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Volodymyr Zelensky has lauded incoming US president Donald Trump saying he could be decisive in the outcome of the 34-month-old war with Russia and help stop Vladimir Putin.
“Trump can be decisive. For us, this is the most important thing,” the Ukrainian president said in a televised interview.“His qualities are indeed there,” Mr Zelensky said of Mr Trump.
“He can be decisive in this war. He is capable of stopping Putin or, to put it more fairly, help us stop Putin. He is able to do this.”
Facing advances by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, Mr Zelenksy said Mr Trump had told him he would be one of the first world leaders to visit Washington after the presidential inauguration this month.
His comments came as the Ukrainian military said it had carried out a precision strike on a Russian command post in Maryino in Russia’s Kursk region as Russian officials confirmed the attack.
“These strikes disrupt the ability of the Russian Federation to conduct terrorism against innocent Ukrainian civilians,” the Ukrainian military said in a statement.
Russian gas is no longer flowing to EU states through Ukraine following the expiration of a five-year deal, closing an energy route that has existed since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the move means Russia can no longer “earn billions on our blood”.
His energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the gas flows “in the interest of national security”.
“This is a historic event,” he wrote on the social media platform Telegram. “Russia is losing markets and will incur financial losses.”
Alicja Hagopian, our Data correspondent explains:
Russia will no longer transport gas to Europe via Ukraine’s pipelines, further limiting its ability to raise capital
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he was preparing to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria, less than a month after the overthrow of the Russia-backed government in Damascus.
Zelensky spoke after a visit to Syria by his Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, and by Agriculture Minister Vitaliy Koval who said earlier Ukraine had already sent a shipment of food aid.
“We are preparing to resume diplomatic relations with Syria and cooperation in international organisations,” Zelenskiy said.
Ukraine cut diplomatic ties with Syria in June 2022 after the then government in Damascus said it recognised the “independence” of the Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Since rebels overthrew Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad last month, Ukraine has been moving to build ties with the new Islamist rulers there. Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, was a staunch ally of Assad and has given him political asylum.
Moscow has also said it is in contact with the new administration in Damascus, including over the fate of Russian military facilities in Syria.
President-elect Donald Trump has boasted on social media about taking over Greenland, making Canada the 51st state, and wresting control of the Panama Canal.
His expansionist rhetoric has worried allies but elated enemies, with Russians viewing the statements as evidence that Trump isn’t opposed to foreign wars of conquest, as is the Kremlin, despite what he has otherwise stated.
To Russian president Vladimir Putin’s top propagandists, Trump’s statements have revealed that he would blithely invade a country unable to fight back, according to Julia Davis, an observer of Russian media and columnist at The Daily Beast.
By talking of making Canada the 51st state, “Trump is basically saying, ‘Russians, you can take the Baltics,’” said TV host
Russian forces gained 4,168sq km of land, largely fields and small settlements in Ukraine and the Kursk region, in 2024 but suffered over 420,000 casualties in the process, an American think tank monitoring the war has claimed.
The Institute for the Study of War cited Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi’s remarks last week that Russian forces suffered 427,000 casualties in 2024.
“ISW has observed geolocated evidence to assess that the Russian forces advanced 4,168 square kilometers in 2024, indicating that Russian forces suffered approximately 102 casualties per square kilometer of Ukrainian territory seized,” it said in an assessment released on Wednesday.
Russian forces made 56.5 per cent of their 2024 territorial gains between September and November period, it added.
Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine is preparing to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria.
“We are preparing to resume diplomatic relations with Syria and cooperation in international organisations,” Mr Zelensky said after hearing the report from Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha’s visit to Syria on Monday.
Volodymyr Zelensky has said stabilising the frontline was critical as Russian forces have captured village after village on the eastern front in their fastest advance since the February 2022 invasion.
“They are putting pressure on our boys, who are exhausted and that is a fact. We will do everything to at least stabilise the front in January,” he said.
Mr Zelensky, elected in 2019, repeated that new elections could not be held as long as a wartime state of emergency remained in place, but said he would consider running again once conditions permitted.
“I don’t know how this war will end,” he said. “If I can do more than I am able, then I will probably view such a decision (seeking a new term) more positively. For now this is not an objective for me.”
With a Russian apologist preparing to return to the White House, Keir Giles plots out how he believes Putin will use the new American president, Ukraine’s defenselessness, and the chill of life without a US security blanket, to proceed with his long-term goals of domination
President-elect Donald Trump could be decisive in the outcome of the 34-month-old war with Russia and help stop Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Mr Zelensky, facing advances by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, said in an interview with Ukrainian television that Mr Trump had told him he would be one of the first to visit Washington after the presidential inauguration this month.
The Ukrainian president also said a priority was to stabilise the frontline early in the new year. Mr Putin, he said, feared negotiations as they would be tantamount to a defeat for Russia.
“He’s very strong and unpredictable, and I would really like to see President Trump’s unpredictability apply to Russia. I believe he really wants to end the war,” he said. “Trump can be decisive. For us, this is the most important thing,” he said in a televised interview.
“His qualities are indeed there,” Mr Zelensky said of Mr Trump. “He can be decisive in this war. He is capable of stopping Putin or, to put it more fairly, help us stop Putin. He is able to do this.”
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