By Kanishka Singh and Costas Pitas
(Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country was “closer to the end of the war” with Russia, according to excerpts of an interview with ABC News published on Monday.
“I think we are closer to peace than we think,” he said. “We are closer to the end of the war.”
In the interview, he urged Washington and other partners to continue supporting Ukraine. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022 as what Moscow called a “special operation,” has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted millions more and devastated Ukrainian towns and cities.
The Ukrainian leader said that only from a “strong position” can Ukraine put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin “to stop the war.”
Zelenskiy arrived in the United States on Sunday to attend sessions of the UN General Assembly and urged his partners to help achieve “a shared victory for a truly just peace.”
Washington and its allies have provided a multi-billion dollar aid program to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began, while imposing several rounds of sanctions against Moscow.
Putin says peace talks can only begin if kyiv gives Russia parts of eastern and southern Ukraine and abandons its NATO membership ambitions. Zelenskiy has repeatedly called for the withdrawal of all Russian troops and the restoration of Ukraine’s post-Soviet borders.
On August 6, kyiv launched a cross-border attack on the Kursk region in western Russia. Ukraine says the action was aimed in part at preventing Russian forces in the area from launching their own incursion across the border into Ukraine.
Zelenskiy told ABC News that Putin was afraid of the Kursk operation.
“He is very afraid,” he said. “Why? Because his people have seen that he cannot defend all of his territory.”
Ukraine and the West claim that Russia is waging an imperial-style war. Putin described the invasion of Ukraine as a defensive measure against a hostile and aggressive West.