President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke at a press conference with journalists. He spoke about the war, the US President Donald Trump, and sanctions against the fifth president Petro Poroshenko. Here are the main statements.
On Trumpʼs statement about 4% trust in Zelensky
"Commenting on ratings about yourself or other leaders means that there is some kind of political competition going on, elections are underway. We donʼt have that. Trust in me is 57% according to the KIIS
According to him, the disinformation about the 4% rating comes from Russia. Zelensky added that Ukraine has evidence that these figures are being discussed by the presidents of the United States and Russia.
"Still, we must influence the disinformation circle around President Trump. I donʼt know where they meet, in Mar-a-Lago or Washington, but the permanent people around him are both representatives of Hungary and lobbyists of the Slovaks. And all this is in order to make Ukraine weak," Zelensky emphasized.
The US helped Putin come out of isolation
According to Zelensky, the United States of America helped Putin emerge from years of isolation.
"I would like the Trump team to be more truthful. Because all this does not have a positive impact on Ukraine. They are bringing Putin out of isolation, which Putin and the Russians are very happy about. Yesterday there were signals that they are being treated like victims. This is something new," Zelensky said.
How much did the war cost Ukraine?
The war cost Ukraine $320 billion. Of that, $120 billion was paid by Ukrainian taxpayers, $200 billion by the US and the EU. All of these are weapons packages.
"In total, the US gave us about $67 billion for weapons and $31.5 billion in direct financial assistance to the budget. There were some separate programs, there were humanitarian programs, we are grateful. But you canʼt charge us $500 billion and ask us to return 500 billion in minerals, this is a frivolous conversation," Zelensky said.
Rare Earth Metals Agreement
Ukraine is ready to sign an agreement on rare earth metals, but Kyiv needs security guarantees. But the agreement that the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant brought to Kyiv did not contain any security guarantees.
"The document was clear in only one thing — we must give 50% of everything that is listed there. By the way, we are not afraid of this and I am ready for the publicity of this document. I told the US Treasury Secretary that this document is not ready. Everything that is written there is beyond my capabilities, beyond my powers, beyond the Constitution of Ukraine and all legislation," the president said.
Zelensky added that the US knows what security guarantees Ukraine wants to see in the document.
"Security guarantees are all on the table. I offered them NATO and I understand that they donʼt like that weʼre even talking about it. [...] NATO or our army is worth millions, the funding for this army, weapons, total air defense, which is exclusively available to the Americans, and a contingent from those countries that are capable of standing in our cities, on our borders, on the contact lines for a certain period of time," he said.
Sanctions against Petro Poroshenko
"Let the law enforcement agencies tell us about the reasons. All this was at the National Security and Defense Council, the financial monitoring department reported all this, there is an investigation, and the sanctions were not imposed on Petro Poroshenko, do not subjectify the person who withdraws funds from our state, there is a list of people who were involved in this," Zelensky said.
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