President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that Ukraine and its allies are very close to the moment when Russia can be forced to end or at least halt the war, but this would require the United States to impose tough sanctions on Russia.

Source: Zelenskyy in an interview with ABC News; a full video has been posted by the press service for the Ukrainian President’s Office

Quote: "Frankly speaking, we are very close to the moment when Russia can be forced to end the war, at least to stop. We feel it.

Our operation Spider's Web… even though they [the Russians – ed.] are furious, they understand everything – that if there are cases like the one involving 20,000 rockets [that the US had planned to send to Ukraine but redirected to the Middle East – ed.], then we'll rely on our own strength… We don't want the war to continue, but we'll fight for ourselves if that is the only way out.

We're very close. We need strong support from the United States. The US needs unity with Europe and still needs to put pressure on Putin. He doesn't want to end the war, but he can end the war under pressure from partners. In my opinion, that gives us a chance. And this doesn't sound pessimistic at all – I'm talking about reality."

Details: When asked whether Trump wants to impose sanctions on Russia, Zelenskyy replied: "He is the leader of the United States of America, he has to do it. I hope so, we do believe that the US is the leader of the civilised world".

A journalist reminded the Ukrainian president that Trump had recently even mentioned the possibility of imposing sanctions on Ukraine.

"There has been a lot from the Russians against Ukraine," Zelenskyy said. "We certainly don’t want anything like that from the US either."

He stressed that Ukraine supports all US-proposed initiatives concerning a ceasefire, ending the war or any format of negotiations.

Quote:"There is no need to find a balance between us and the Russians. The Russians don’t want this. Sometimes there is no alternative. It’s only the Russians who don’t want to end the war. It doesn’t matter who wants to impose sanctions on them – America must impose sanctions. There is no alternative in either case." 

More details: Zelenskyy said he believes "the president of the United States has all the potential, all the tools to pressure Putin – starting with sanctions, economic blockades, arms packages and rallying other European leaders who want this around him".

Quote:"They  [European leaders – ed.] view President Trump as the leader of the world – the free and democratic world – and they say: 'Please, be the leader. You're the leader. Stop Putin, and we'll help you, because Europe isn't as strong as America'. Europe still has to become very strong. But today, the struggle continues. President Trump can do all of this, I believe."

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