Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN that the war in Iran diverted focus from Russia’s aggression against his country, saying it would be a “great risk” to think that efforts to end the fighting in Ukraine could not resume until the conflict in Iran was over.
In an interview with journalist Christiane Amanpour, from CNNin the presidential office in Kiev, Zelensky said this Wednesday (22) that, although technical talks with the United States are still ongoing, he does not see “an opportunity for a meeting… until the issue, the case of Iran, is closed.”
Zelensky stressed that it was a “challenge” that the same team of American negotiators – led by US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner – was leading both the Iran war talks and the Ukraine war talks.
And he said that while he understands the United States is currently focused on , it is important not to forget Ukraine, where fighting continues.
The Ukrainian leader stated that it was not an option to say that “we will talk about Ukraine a little later… Ukraine is not ‘a little later.’ Ukraine is already in the midst of such a huge tragedy that we need to find a way to deal with it in parallel.”
Zelesky also told CNN that the war has disrupted the supply of essential weapons to Ukraine, especially anti-ballistic missiles, of which he says the country is not receiving enough due to limited production capacity in the US.
“Matter of survival”
In an interview with CNN Just hours after the EU finally approved a crucial 90 billion euro loan for Ukraine, Zelensky said getting the money was a matter of “life and survival” for the country.
The loan, promised to Kiev months ago, suffered long delays as then-Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán blocked it, demanding that Ukraine resume the flow of Russian oil to Ukraine. Its crushing defeat last week removed one of the obstacles, and on Wednesday oil transit through the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba pipeline resumed, and EU ambassadors gave a preliminary agreement for the loan.
Zelensky said to CNN that without the funds, Ukraine was struggling to manufacture the amount of weapons it was capable of producing.
He gave the example of drone interceptors, saying that Ukraine is currently producing around 1,000 units per day – although it has the capacity to manufacture 2,000 per day.
“But we don’t have the funding. It’s really a matter of life and death, of survival, of defense; we really need that money,” he told CNN.
