Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged that the Iran war had taken the focus away from Russia’s invasion of his country, and told CNN it was a “huge risk” that efforts to end the fighting in Ukraine could not be resumed until the Iranian conflict ended.
President Zelenskiy told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour from the presidential palace in Kiev on Wednesday that technical talks with the United States are still taking place, but “I don’t think there will be an opportunity to meet until the question of whether the Iran incident is resolved or not.”
Zelensky said it was a “challenge” that the same US negotiating team, led by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, was leading negotiations on both the Iran and Ukraine wars.
He also said that while he understands that the United States is currently focused on the war against Iran, it is important to not forget about Ukraine, where fighting continues.
The Ukrainian leader said that saying “we will talk about (Ukraine) a little later” is not an option. …Ukraine is not “a little later.” Ukraine has already suffered a great tragedy and must find a way to manage this in parallel. ”
President Zelesnki also told CNN that the war has disrupted some supplies of key weapons to Ukraine, particularly anti-ballistic missiles, and that Ukraine is not getting enough supplies because of limited U.S. production capacity.
problems of life and survival
Speaking to CNN just hours after the European Union finally approved a crucial 90 billion euro loan to Ukraine, Zelenskiy said getting the money was a matter of “life and survival” for his country.
The loan was promised to Kiev several months ago but was delayed significantly as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán blocked the loan as he urged Ukraine to restart Russian oil flowing into Europe. His landslide defeat in last week’s Hungarian parliamentary elections cleared one of the hurdles, as oil shipments through the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba pipeline resumed on Wednesday, and EU ambassadors tentatively agreed to a loan.
President Zelenskiy told CNN that without funds, Ukraine would struggle to produce as many weapons as it could.
He gave the example of drone interceptors, saying that Ukraine currently produces about 1,000 units per day, although it currently has a production capacity of 2,000 units. “But we don’t have the funds. This is really a matter of our lives, our survival, our defense. We need this money very badly,” he told CNN.
