Ukraine’s President did not make any statements about the war in Ukraine being started by the United States. Volodymyr Zelensky once again emphasised that Ukraine decides on operations to de-occupy its territories from Russian invaders.
“Kyiv admits it is Washington’s puppet” – the Russian newspaper Vzglyad sensationally declared reacting to Ukrainian President Zelensky’s interview with American television network’s ABC News. The Russian media declared that during the interview, Zelensky allegedly admitted that the US is curating Ukraine’s actions and stated that Washington could end the conflict in Ukraine at any moment, since they [the Americans] unleashed it.
“This is an open admission that Ukrainian aggression, and therefore the entire conflict, is completely dependent on Washington. In fact, Zelensky has publicly admitted that he does not make any independent decisions, and is the West’s obedient puppet,” Russian media quoted pro-Kremlin experts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky never said anything about any American involvement in unleashing the war in Ukraine. This claim is a Russian fake, using the well honed propaganda technique of taking the speaker’s words out of context.
In reality, the Ukrainian President was answering a question from an ABC News journalist, who asked Zelenskyi to comment on former American President Donald Trump’s claim that he would end the war with Russia “in 24 hours.” Zelensky noted that Russia invaded Ukraine back in 2014, and Trump already had the opportunity to influence the aggressor. However, Trump had other priorities, President Zelensky said, and did not take any definitive steps to stop Russian aggression against Ukraine.
“… it looks as if Donald Trump has already those 24 hours once. We were at war, not a full-scale war, but we were at war and as I assume he had that time at his disposal, but he must have had other priorities.” Zelensky said.
President Zelensky also underscored that the option of Ukraine giving up territory to end the war with Russia, which Trump alludes to, is unacceptable for Ukraine. Therefore, there can be no talk of “ending the war in 24 hours.” If Ukraine agreed to “forget” about its territories occupied by the Russian army, current US President Joe Biden would complete the peace negotiations “in five minutes,” Zelensky joked.
“If we are talking about ending the war at Ukraine’s expense, making us give up our territories, well, I think in this way Biden could have brought it to an end even in five minutes. But we would not agree,” Zelensky concluded.
This is the context of Zelensky’s phrase about the possibility of quickly ending Russia’s war against Ukraine. The President did not say that the war completely depends on Washington. On the contrary, Volodymyr Zelenskyy once again emphasized that Ukraine itself decides on campaigns to de-occupy its lands from Russian invaders, disregarding the populist statements of individual politicians about the possibility of ending the war in a day.
