Zelensky says he can end the war next year with Donald Trump's help

Zelensky says he can end the war next year with Donald Trump's help

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Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday declared he will do all he can to end the war in Ukraine next year – and Donald Trump in the White House will make it happen ‘faster’.

In an interview with Ukrainian radio, the country’s president urged the US to maintain its position that the Kremlin had violated Ukraine’s territorial integrity and international law – as Donald Trump prepares to return as US President in January.

Mr Zelensky said: ‘We must do everything we can to ensure this war ends next year. We have to end it by diplomatic means.’

And he said the war ‘will end faster with the policy of this team that will now lead the White House’.

Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed he could end the war in Ukraine upon his return to power, saying last year: ‘I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done – I’ll have that done in 24 hours.’

As Russia continued to pepper Kyiv with drone attacks, Mr Zelensky also rounded on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for opening ‘Pandora’s box’ with an unexpected call to Vladimir Putin last week.

The Ukraine leader said the first call between a major Western European leader and Moscow in more than two years risked undermining efforts to isolate the Russian president since the 2022 invasion.

Mr Zelensky said: ‘Olaf’s call has opened a Pandora’s box. Now there may be other conversations, other calls... this is exactly what Putin has long wanted: it is extremely important for him to weaken his isolation.

‘I don’t think Putin wants peace at all. But that does not mean he doesn’t want to sit down with world leaders… and it benefits him to sit down, talk, and not reach an agreement.’

The German chancellor’s office said Mr Scholz condemned the war in the hour-long call to Moscow on Friday, and called for peace talks and a withdrawal of troops.

According to the Kremlin, the German leader and his Russian counterpart also discussed the Middle East crisis, and relations between Moscow and Berlin.

It is not clear if other world leaders were briefed ahead of Mr Scholz picking up the phone to Russia. But the decision was seized upon by German opposition politicians, who criticised the chancellor’s intervention.

Jurgen Hardt, foreign policy spokesman for the opposition CDU party, said Putin will ‘understand the fact that Scholz called him as a sign of weakness rather than strength’.

He accused Mr Scholz of having helped Putin to a ‘propaganda win’ for German domestic political reasons. Germany has been Ukraine’s second biggest supplier of weapons after the US but has refrained from sending long-range weapons that could strike deep inside Russia.

Russia has been buoyed in recent months by its troops gaining ground against Kyiv’s outmanned and outgunned soldiers.