Zelenskyy says it will be “very difficult” for Ukraine to stay alive without military help from the U.S.

The president of Ukraine told “Meet the Press” on NBC News that he doesn’t “want to think about” getting help from the United States.

On Friday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, said that it would be “very, very, very difficult” for Ukraine to stay alive without U.S. military help, both while it is fighting Russia’s invasion and after the war is over.

“Most likely, it will be really, really hard. Zelenskyy expressed confidence in the possibility of surviving without US assistance at the Munich Security Conference, stating that he doesn’t want to think about beating Russia without American help and remains a strategic partner.

In his speech, the president of Ukraine also said that he was worried that Russia would attack Ukraine again in the future if the U.S. stopped sending troops to help..

Zelenskyy said that Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, wants to talk about ending the war, but he also wants to strike a peace deal that would lift some international sanctions against Russia and give its forces time to get back together.

“This is what he really wants.” “Because of the ceasefire and other things, he wants to stop, plan, train, and lift some sanctions,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy spoke out during a tense summit in Germany, where Vice President JD Vance criticized European leaders for failing to stand up for “values shared with the United States of America” and other problems that had nothing to do with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In answer, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier gave his own honest opinion. He said that the Trump administration had “no regard for established rules, partnership and grown trust.”

The gap between Europe and the US is getting bigger at a very bad time for Zelenskyy and a Ukraine that is tired and worn out. The war seems to have turned into a muck, but Russian troops have been making painfully slow progress. About 20% of the country is controlled by Russia, which needs weapons and troops badly.

People who support Ukraine always knew that the new White House would be very different from the one that Joe Biden ran. Biden wanted Ukraine to win, but he didn’t always give Kyiv all the weapons it needed to fight Russia.

Many people in Europe are shocked and even horrified by what Trump and his supporters have said and done this week. There, most people think it is against the West’s best interests to let Russia win in Ukraine.

Kaja Kallas, head of EU foreign policy, said at the Munich summit that Vance’s speech made her feel like he was trying “to pick a fight with us, and we don’t want to pick a fight with our friends.”

But officials and experts are worried that Trump might do just that. This week, it looked like the president would put Putin ahead of Zelenskyy or European allies in any peace talks that might happen. Trump’s government also talked about giving Putin a lot of things, like giving up Ukrainian land and giving up on the idea that the country could join NATO.

Some people say Zelenskyy has kept up a brave front because he doesn’t have much of a choice. He recently told The Economist that he didn’t think the U.S. had a “ready plan” for peace. He also made it clear that he would not agree to any deal made by Washington and Moscow without his input.

Trump “is a strong man,” the Ukrainian leader said Friday at the meeting while talking with U.S. senators. “And if he picks our side and doesn’t stay in the middle, I think he will put pressure on Putin to end the war.” He’s strong enough to do it.

Trump didn’t do much to help Ukraine in return, but Vance did offer some support to Kyiv and its European neighbors. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Vance said that Moscow might face sanctions and other punishments.

Vance told the newspaper, “There are some tools of leverage that are used in business and some that are used in the military.” “There are a lot of different ways to say this, but we do care that Ukraine is sovereign and independent.”

Europe is scared about more than just Ukraine. They are afraid of what Putin will do next if he feels like he got away with his invasion of Ukraine. European intelligence agencies say that Russia could attack a NATO ally in the next five years if it thinks that the union has been weakened, which is something that Trump is often blamed for.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began three years ago, is the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II. It has brought back scenes of trench fighting and tank battles that some scholars thought were history. NATO says that as many as a million people have died, including hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian troops.

The union thinks that 10,000 people are killed or hurt every week on average in the cold, broken fields of eastern Ukraine.