He made the remarks during an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan, with excerpts published on Tuesday. Asked if he is prepared to meet with the Russian president, Zelensky indicated that he is.

“If that is the only setup in which we can bring peace to the citizens of Ukraine and not lose people, definitely we will go for this setup, for this meeting,” he said.

“What is my attitude to him [Putin]? I will not be kind to him and I… consider him an enemy. And to be honest, I believe he considers me an enemy as well,” he added.

The remarks appear to reflect a shift in Zelensky’s stance. He has refused to negotiate with Putin in the past and even signed a decree banning any negotiations with Moscow, and Putin specifically. Last month, Zelensky stated the ban applies to all Ukrainian officials except himself, while the original 2022 decree only stated that negotiations are “impossible” without specifying any individuals or entities prohibited from engaging in them.

Last week, Putin reiterated Moscow’s position that Zelensky lacks the legitimacy to sign agreements, given that his presidential term expired in May 2024 and no constitutional mechanism exists to extend it. However, the Russian president said he is willing to send negotiators to talk to Zelensky if he is open to discussions.

“It’s possible to negotiate with anyone. However, due to his illegitimacy, [Zelensky] has no right to sign anything. If he wishes to participate in talks, I will deploy people who will conduct such negotiations,” Putin stated.

The Ukrainian decree banning negotiations with Russia remains an obstacle to meaningful talks between Kiev and Moscow, Putin added. He pledged to deploy a team of legal experts to assess the authority of any Ukrainian negotiating team and determine whether they have the proper legal standing to sign an agreement.

“If we start negotiations now, they will be illegitimate… Because when the current head of the regime – that’s the only way to call [Zelensky] today – signed this decree, he was a somewhat legitimate president. But now he can’t cancel it because he is illegitimate. That’s the trick, the catch, the trap,” Putin explained.

On Tuesday, British journalist Piers Morgan published an excerpt from an interview with Zelensky in which he asked the Ukrainian leader why Kiev refuses any alternative to NATO membership ahead of possible peace negotiations, when he knows such a proposition is outright unacceptable to Moscow.

Zelensky responded that should Kiev be prevented rom joining the US-led bloc in the near future, then Ukraine will have the right to ask its Western backers: “What will be defending us against this evil this whole time?”

“Give us back nuclear weapons, give us missile systems. Partners, help us finance a one-million army, deploy your troops to the areas of our country where we want to stabilize the situation,” he went on to say.

Over the past months, Zelensky has repeatedly expressed regret that his country surrendered Soviet nuclear weapons stationed on its soil in exchange for security guarantees. Following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, Ukraine inherited around 1,700 nuclear warheads, which however remained under Moscow’s operational control.

Russia has argued that Ukraine never had any nuclear weapons to begin with, as the Soviet assets legally belonged to Moscow. Russian officials have also repeatedly stated that the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which resolved possession of the outstanding nuclear weapons, was then undermined by NATO’s eastward expansion, which threatened Moscow’s vital security interests. The US consigned the memorandum to irrelevancy by backing the Maidan coup in Kiev in 2014.

In an interview with US podcaster Lex Fridman last month, Zelensky similarly lamented that “nuclear weapons were the security guarantees that Ukraine had.”

He claimed at the time that “Ukraine used [the weapons] for protection” before handing them over to Russia.

Back in October, Zelensky also insisted that Ukraine could protect itself either by becoming a nuclear state or a member of NATO, adding that he strongly favored the latter option.

Several weeks later, the New York Times, citing anonymous officials, claimed that former US President Joe Biden “could allow Ukraine to have nuclear weapons again.” Commenting on the allegations, ex-National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan clarified that the idea was “not under consideration.”

In late December, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Ukraine could only get hold of nuclear weapons through the transfer of “important components from the outside, from other states.”

In November, President Vladimir Putin emphasized that Russia would be compelled to utilize all available means of destruction if Ukraine were to acquire nuclear weapons.

He stated, “What do you think – on the level of common sense – if the country with which we are essentially now engaged in military operations becomes a nuclear power, what should we do? In this case, use all – I want to emphasize this – precisely all the means of destruction at Russia’s disposal,” he stressed.

“We will not allow this,” he added.