Addressing the nation on Tuesday, the Ukrainian President said a visit to Ukraine might make it clear to Trump "who the aggressor is here and who must be pressured." He said: "I really want to come here with the president of the United States one day. I know for certain: only by coming to Ukraine, and seeing with one’s own eyes our life and our struggle, feeling our people and the enormity of this pain – only then can one understand what this war is really about." He continued: “This is not a street fight – it is an attack by a sick state on a sovereign one. He [Putin] is the cause of its beginning and the obstacle to its end. And it is Russia that must be put in its place. So that there can be real peace.”
lenskyy said Putin had not achieved his original war goals (Image: Getty)
His comments come on the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion. This is the first time that Zelensky was recorded speaking from the underground bunker in Kyiv’s Bankova Street. The bunker is the same place where Zelenskyy and his advisers worked and slept during the first hours after Russia’s 2022 attack.
The footage depicts a long, windowless hallway marked with a sign reading “The Ukrainian President’s Office.” Farther along the corridor, an Orthodox icon hangs on the wall, with the Ukrainian Tryzub displayed beneath it.
Zelensky said: "This office – this small room in the bunker on Bankova Street – this is where I held my first conversations with world leaders at the start of the war.
"Here I spoke with President Biden, and it was right here that I heard: Volodymyr, there is a threat. You need to leave Ukraine urgently. We are ready to help with that. And here I replied that I need ammunition, not a ride."
The Ukrainian President added that Putin has failed to achieve his original war goals. He said: "He has not won this war. We have preserved Ukraine, and we will do everything to achieve peace. And to ensure justice."
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On Tuesday, Zelenskyy welcomed a group of European leaders to Kyiv including the British foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.
Also attending were prime ministers from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Estonia and Latvia, as well as Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb.
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