Yesterday at 21:21
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that future security guarantees for Ukraine should include commitments from both European countries and the United States of America.
The head of state stated this in an interview with Italian journalist Cecilia Sala for the Il Foglio newspaper, Ukrinform reports.
“If we talk about who can stop (Russia – ed.), it’s only a large number of allies. If we don’t have America, then Ukraine should not reduce its Army size but instead increase it, because Europe will not have enough. These, by the way, were my messages voiced in Switzerland. All these armies are weak compared to the Russian one,” Zelenskyy said.
According to the president, the Ukrainian Defense Forces today consist of over 800,000 soldiers, in France the army has over 200,000, and the rest of European countries have smaller armed forces. Therefore, effective confrontation with Russia is possible only with the participation of the United States.
“Security guarantees should be Europe plus the United States of America,” the president emphasized.
In this context, Zelenskyy said that in his opinion, U.S. President Donald Trump “really wants to end the war.”
“Trump can (end the war – ed.) faster than anyone in the world, in my opinion, from the point of view of the Army, the economy, America’s influence on global economy, and his personal features. I believe that he can definitely influence this faster than others,” the head of the Ukrainian state noted, adding that “China also has great influence, but the United States has more.”
As reported, on December 3, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Budapest Memorandum, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the only real guarantee of security for Ukraine, as well as a deterrent against future Russian aggression against Ukraine and other states, is only Ukraine’s full membership of NATO.
