– Ukraine has little chance of surviving Russia’s assault without US support, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Feb 14 after phone calls this week by US President Donald Trump with Mr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Probably it will be very, very, very difficult. And of course, in all the difficult situations, you have a chance. But we will have low chance – low chance to survive without the support of the United States,” Mr Zelensky said in an interview on the NBC News programme Meet The Press.

An excerpt was released on Feb 14 from the interview, which will be broadcast on Feb 16.

Mr Trump discussed the war on Feb 12 in separate calls with Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky, in the US President’s first big step towards diplomacy in a conflict he has promised to end quickly.

Mr Trump later said he did not think it was practical for Kyiv to join Nato and that it was unlikely Ukraine would get back all its land. Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014, launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine demands Russia withdraw from captured territory and says it must receive Nato membership or equivalent security guarantees to prevent Moscow from attacking again.

Mr Zelensky said in the interview that Mr Putin wanted to come to the negotiating table not to end the war, but to get a ceasefire deal to lift some global sanctions on Russia and allow Moscow’s military to regroup.

“This is really what he wants. He wants to pause, prepare, train, take off some sanctions because of the ceasefire,” Mr Zelensky said.

Mr Trump said his call with Mr Putin was a good conversation that lasted more than an hour, while the Kremlin said it lasted nearly 1½ hours. Mr Zelensky’s office said the US President and its leader spoke for about an hour. Mr Trump said the call “went very well”. REUTERS

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.