Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the idea of a ceasefire with Russia in an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday.
The Ukrainian leader said he wouldn’t accept a ceasefire that leaves Russian forces in areas of Ukraine they have captured and said Russian President Vladimir Putin could not be trusted.
“We cannot simply trust Putin in principle,” Zelensky said. “We cannot trust him because he is a killer and the aggressor.”
Zelensky’s comments came after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made his first wartime visit to Kyiv and suggested Zelensky consider a ceasefire with Russia rather than his so-called “peace formula” that requires a Russian withdrawal before peace talks can even begin.
After meeting with Zelensky, Orban said that the Ukrainian leader was “not enthusiastic” about his idea. Ukrainian officials also said that Zelensky quickly rejected the proposal.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he couldn’t agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine because he couldn’t be sure that it would be followed. Both Putin and Zelensky said the other side could use a ceasefire to rebuild its forces.
“We can’t allow the enemy to use this ceasefire to improve its situation, to arm itself, to reconstitute its army through forced mobilization and to be ready to continue the armed conflict,” Putin said.
In his interview, Zelensky said that he wanted to see former President Trump’s plan to end the war in Ukraine. Trump has claimed he could quickly end the war but hasn’t articulated how he would do it.
Putin also discussed Trump’s comments and said he thought the former president was serious about ending the proxy war. “The fact that Mr. Trump, as a presidential candidate, declares that he is ready and wants to stop the war in Ukraine, we take this completely seriously,” he said.
“I am not, of course, familiar with possible proposals for how he plans to do this. This is the key question. But I have no doubt that he means it sincerely, and we support it,” Putin added.
Throughout the war, the only time a real peace deal was on the table was back in March and April of 2022. But the US and NATO discouraged Ukraine from signing an agreement and promised to support its fight against Russia.
