Foreign Pool Report #4 — Zelenskyy Full Quotes & Key Points

Key points from President Zelenskyy’s statements

• He appeared willing to enter peace talks without insisting on immediate NATO membership, if there are alternative “strong security guarantees”, potentially bilateral guarantees with the United States.

• Said Putin is “not ready” for peace yet, but argued Ukraine can stop the war “with [President Trump’s] help,” citing heavy Russian losses.

• Immediate asks: a ceasefire; increased pressure on Putin; more weapons—especially long-range missiles; and deeper U.S.–Ukraine cooperation on defense and energy.

• Open to talks “in any format — bilateral, trilateral” and floated a practical exchange: U.S. Tomahawks in return for Ukrainian mass-produced drones/joint production.

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Full quotes:

Introduction:

“Mr. President, thank you very much for the invitation again… my congratulations on your successful ceasefire in the Middle East, thank you… and you did it, and I think this momentum to finish Russia’s war against Ukraine… yes, we understand that Putin is not ready — I think not really — but I’m confident that with your help we can stop this war, and we really need it… we see that they don’t have successful steps on the battlefield and it is good… I think their army has made a lot of losses, they have a lot of losses… and I think this is a very important moment… and I wanted to thank you, Mr. President: after our phone calls yesterday, I had a good opportunity to meet with big American energy companies and they are ready to help us after all these attacks on our infrastructure, Russian attacks on the energy sector… and I also had meetings, thanks to your team, with good military companies, we spoke about air defense and I want to share the details of where we are after those meeti

ngs… thank you so much…”

Possible concessions:

“I think we need to sit and speak now… the second thing is we need a ceasefire… even now you see, in the Middle East, it is very difficult to hold a ceasefire, everywhere, in every war, it is very difficult… we want peace; Putin doesn’t want it… that is why we need pressure on him… we will speak with the President today about what we need… we understand what we need to push Putin to the negotiation table… and as I said previously, we are ready to speak in any kind of format — bilateral, trilateral — it doesn’t matter, just peace… this is important… and we don’t speak about NATO or naming NATO… for Ukrainians it is very important, of course; it is our decision — decisions of allies — to decide where we are… but the most important thing for people in Ukraine, who are under attacks every day, is to have really strong security guarantees… NATO is the best, but weapons are very important… allies on our side are very important… and between us and the United States, bilat

eral security guarantees between me and President Trump are very important — I don’t know, we didn’t speak about it — but this is the most important document, because the United States is very strong…”

Differences between Presidents Trump and Biden:

“President Trump has a big chance now to finish this war… President Biden now is not the president, so he doesn’t have a chance to finish this war… and President Trump has really shown the world that he can manage this ceasefire in the Middle East… that is why I hope that he will do this and we will also have such a big success for Ukraine… it is a big chance, and I hope that President Trump can manage it…”

On Tomahawks:

“Just to be clear for today: of course we want to finish this war… but the war is now a technological war… you don’t use just Tomahawks if you want to target military objectives… you need thousands of drones — and drones together with such missiles… Ukraine has thousands of our production drones, but we don’t have Tomahawks… that is why we need Tomahawks… the United States has a very strong production and very strong missiles — Tomahawks and other missiles… but the United States can have our thousands of drones… that is why we can work together, we can strengthen American production… so this is what I understand…” (asked whether that implies a trade) “…yes… it’s about military goals — only military goals… yes, we would authorize some kind of exchange… we have a proposition… we have great programs with our drones…”

On relationship with President Trump:

“About our relations with President Trump… I think we have important dialogues and I think we begin to understand each other… yes… and I know that the President is briefed very well about the situation on the battlefield… and you know a lot is going on on the battlefield in Ukraine… I think it really helps when you know a lot of things, a lot of details, about one or another war… it helps a lot… but we are still in the war, and I think we can manage…”

David Alandete

White House Correspondent

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