However, President Zelensky said it will not be possible to end nearly three years of war in one day, as Mr. Trump claimed during his election campaign.
If Mr. Trump remains firm on his positions, the “hot” phase of the war could end quickly, the Ukrainian president said in a television interview Thursday evening, referring to the fighting on the battlefield.
“I believe that [Donald Trump] is strong and unpredictable. I would very much like President Trump’s unpredictability to be directed primarily at the Russian Federation,” Zelensky added.
Donald Trump, who takes office on January 20, has not yet publicly revealed his policy on Ukraine, but his previous comments have raised questions about how much support the United States will provide for Ukrainian troops. The United States represents Ukraine’s largest and most important military supporter.
Mr Zelensky wants to ensure support from Washington continues to flow, and he met with Donald Trump in New York even before last November’s US presidential election.
Uncertainties for the future
With the war set to enter its fourth year next month, and Mr. Trump taking office, questions are being asked about how and when Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II might end. .
Russia controls about a fifth of Ukraine and last year took advantage of weaknesses in Ukraine’s defenses to advance slowly into eastern regions despite heavy losses of troops and equipment. The trajectory of the war is not in favor of Ukraine. The country is short of personnel on the front line and needs continued support from its Western partners.
Mr. Trump responded favorably to the possibility raised by French President Emmanuel Macron of deploying Western peacekeeping forces to Ukraine to oversee a deal that would end the fighting, Mr. Zelensky said. He met Messrs. Trump and Macron in Paris last month.
-“But I raised an issue, saying that we have not heard which specific countries will join this initiative, and whether the United States will be there,” Mr. Zelensky clarified.
The Ukrainian leader is determined for his country to become a member of NATO. The alliance’s 32 member countries say Ukraine will one day join NATO, but not before the end of the war.
“The deployment of European troops (to maintain peace in Ukraine) should not exclude Ukraine’s future in NATO,” the Ukrainian president stressed.
The incursion into Russia, an “asset”
Mr Zelensky described the incursion of Ukrainian forces into the Russian border region of Kursk as a “very strong asset” in any future peace negotiations.
In an attempt to counter bad news from the front line, Ukraine seized part of Kursk last August, in what was the first occupation of Russian territory since World War II.
But the incursion did not significantly change the dynamics of the war, and military analysts say Ukraine lost about 40 percent of the territory it initially conquered.
However, Zelensky said the feat had impressed countries in Asia, South America and Africa and tarnished Russia’s military reputation.
