A confident, defiant, but still very thankful Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country and people are the “defensive perimeter” for the world against Vladimir Putin’s aggression and global ambitions.
“We are the defensive perimeter,” Zelenskyy told Newsmax‘s Rob Schmitt through an translator in an exclusive sitdown in the capital city of Kyiv on Tuesday. “We are the strong defensive perimeter. It’s not something conventional. It’s not something natural. That’s the physical barrier made up of our people.”
Zelenskyy said “God is on our side” and Russia and Putin represent the “dark power.”
“We have to realize who is the dark power: It’s Russia,” Zelenskyy told Schmitt in a wide-ranging interview. “And Russia is not going to stop in Ukraine, for sure.
“And the other countries, the former Republics of USSR and the members of the E.U. – or some of them are already NATO member nations – they’re already under threat.”
Zelenskyy called out the “weakness” of Putin and Russia, not only in failing to occupy a smaller neighboring nation, but also in attempts to take him out as leader.
“Attempting to kill the leader of this or that country is a weakness, I would say,” he continued. “If you can’t talk, then it’s a weakness.
The weakness is to start the war, and they’ve already demonstrated there is weakness. If you can’t occupy that country, that’s a weakness.”
“And simultaneously, if you would like something to happen to the family of the other country’s leader then that’s a political inability to do anything.”
A defiant Zelenskyy remains steadfast for his people – and the world – in standing against Putin and Russia.
“Everybody understands that I am here,” he said. “You can throw bombs at this place. But what will you achieve?”
Putin cannot win, and the world must stop defending him amid his latest “atrocities,” according to Zelenskyy, who called out the lack of fully enforcing sanctions.
“Now, he’s almost isolated,” Zelenskyy said. “The world always keeps giving him a chance, because the sanctions are not imposed completely. There’s gaps in some of the leaders saying the Russian leader should be offered with a way out.”
Zelenskyy thanked Newsmax for making the trip to Kyiv to get the story on Ukraine’s fight for freedom and independence.
“Let me extend words of gratitude for arriving today to Kyiv, to the capital city of Ukraine, because it’s very difficult to understand the war while being 1,000 kilometers away,” Zelenskyy said. “But you can see Kyiv as a calm city and the same time the situation around our country and the situation out of the capital, because we’ve pressed the enemy outside of the capital city, the situation is difficult.
“The most difficult situation is in the east of Ukraine and southern Donetsk and Luhansk.
“The situation is very difficult; we’re losing 60-100 soldiers per day as killed in action and something around 500 people as wounded in action. So we are holding our defensive perimeters.”
Via Newsmax