Ukrainian President calls on US to increase military presence in the country

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskiy. Photo: AFP

During the interview, a CNN reporter asked Zelensky if he was afraid that "the US would leave Ukraine." Specifically, the journalist raised the parallel hypothesis that the US would withdraw its troops from Afghanistan and leave the allied government without anyone to support it in this country.

“I don’t think we can compare Ukraine and Afghanistan like that. Ukraine is not as dependent on the United States as Afghanistan was,” he said.

According to the Ukrainian leader, "in four, five or seven days it is impossible to capture a geographically large country like Ukraine, a country with such a large population."

At the same time, the American journalist noted to Zelensky that he had not yet answered the above question, and recalled the words of the Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, who said that Ukraine was heading towards disintegration, and the United States at certain moments would not remember its supporters in Kiev, as well as in Kabul recently.

In response, the Ukrainian President specifically noted that Russia "has one of the most powerful armies in the world" and that Ukraine, "to the extent possible, is now independent of any other economy." According to him, there is no way that the United States can "leave" his country and, on the contrary, Washington should increase its presence in the country.

Also in the interview, Zelensky mentioned US President Joe Biden's support for Ukraine's aspirations to become a member of the North Atlantic Alliance.

“He said: ‘I think you should be there (in NATO), but it doesn’t just depend on me,’” the Ukrainian leader quoted Mr. Biden as saying during their meeting in Washington on September 1.