Only America can stop Putin, Zelenskyy says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy implored the Trump administration to apply more pressure on Russia to end the full-scale invasion of his country — and suggested Congress might need to act to bolster any postwar security guarantees.

Zelenskyy, in an interview with POLITICO’s Dasha Burns at the Munich Security Conference, said only the U.S. had the political and financial power to bring a stop to the war.

“Be honest, today only Ukraine [is] defending Europe,” Zelenskyy said at the POLITICO Pub on the summit’s sidelines. “Today, only Europe gives money to Ukraine and helps Ukraine. Today, only [the] United States can stop Putin.”

Zelenskyy, speaking just days before the fourth anniversary of the war, criticized the U.S. for trying to force the Ukrainians to concede territory in the Donbas region without demanding sacrifices from the Kremlin.

“What I see, they give more signals that Ukraine has to make compromises and not Russia,” he said. “This is not [the] right position.”

He also appeared to indicate that Congress would need to backstop security guarantees, either with more money for Ukraine’s postwar military or by sealing a treaty agreement. “Security guarantees will work only after Congress will vote,” he said.

The Ukrainian president pushed back on President Donald Trump’s demand that Kyiv and Moscow wrap up a peace settlement by the summer. He said the Kremlin has strung the U.S. along in talks in an effort to normalize the relationship and ease sanctions.

“Until there is enough pressure,” Zelenskyy said, “they play.”

Putin’s aim, according to Zelenskyy, is to occupy the eastern parts of Ukraine, including parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where the Kremlin’s war effort has made the most progress.

The peace talks, led by U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, are set to resume in Geneva next week. But they have stalled as Ukraine resists American pressure to give up territory — some of which Russia does not yet control — and the lack of concrete security guarantees for Kyiv in a postwar settlement.

Zelenskyy applauded a NATO initiative to give Ukraine more U.S.-made weapons, but said it hadn’t changed Putin’s impression that Europe was weak. “Putin really doesn’t respect Europe,” Zelenskyy said, adding that the Russian leader’s efforts to divide the continent have not been successful.

Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have left millions without heat and electricity in subzero temperatures, and more than a million people have been killed or wounded on both sides. But Zelenskyy still seemed confident it was Ukraine that would outlast Putin.

“I’m younger than Putin — this is important,” Zelenskyy said. “He doesn’t have too much time.”