Speaking in Kyiv after his meeting with Donald Trump at the UN in New York, the Ukrainian president said Russia was preparing for a bigger conflict.
“Putin will not wait to finish his war in Ukraine. He will open up some other direction. Nobody knows where. He wants that,” he added.
Ukraine’s president noted the Kremlin was deliberately checking Europe’s capacity to protect its skies, after drone sightings in Denmark, Poland and Romania and the violation of Estonian airspace by Russian fighter jets. More drones were spotted on Friday night above a Danish military base, and over a Norwegian base on Saturday.
Zelensky suggested EU governments were struggling to deal with this new and dangerous threat.
Zelensky’s remarks follow what he said were “very nice” talks with Trump on the sidelines of the UN general assembly. After the meeting, the US president stated he believed Ukraine could win back all the territory it has lost since 2022, with the support of Europe and NATO.
Trump also noted Russia’s economy was in big trouble and described its military as a “paper tiger”. Asked to explain this apparent warmer tone towards Ukraine, Zelensky said he had briefed Trump about the realities on the battlefield. He told him Russia’s advances were often fleeting: “It’s not success. It’s temporary presence.”
The US president now had greater “faith” in Ukraine and has discovered that Russia treated him and everyone else with “disrespect”, Zelensky said. He declined to comment on reports that he had asked the White House for US Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of striking Moscow, saying: “It’s a sensitive issue.”
In recent months Kyiv has carried out a series of successful strikes against Russian oil refineries using domestically produced long-range drones. Zelensky added that if the Kremlin tried to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure again this winter its own capital will experience retaliatory blackouts.
