'I consider him an enemy' — Zelensky says he's ready to sit opposite Putin in peace talks
President Volodymyr Zelensky is ready to sit at the negotiating table with Russian President Vladimir Putin if it is the only setup that will bring peace to Ukraine, the president told U.K. journalist Piers Morgan in an interview published Feb. 4.
U.S. President Donald Trump has urged Zelensky and Putin to "make a deal" to end the war and has pledged to broker a ceasefire within the first six months of his term.
Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to end the "hot stage" of the war and that its willingness to negotiate with Russia at all represented a compromise.
"We will be speaking with Putin. ... Even the conversation with Putin is a compromise," Zelensky told Morgan.
When asked how he would feel sitting opposite Putin in an in-person meeting, Zelensky dismissed his personal sentiments on the matter.
"If that is the only setup in which we can bring peace to the citizens of Ukraine and not lose people, definitely, we will go for this setup ... What does it matter, my attitude to him?" Zelensky said.
"I will not be kind to him, I consider him an enemy. And to be honest, I believe he considers me an enemy as well."
Zelensky reiterated that the negotiaton process should include Ukraine, the United States, the European Union, and Russia. He also said that Kyiv was not willing to acknowledge any occupied Ukrainian lands as Russian territory.
During the same interview, Zelensky also said Ukraine has lost 45,100 soldiers on the battlefield since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Zelensky added that there have been a total of 390,000 cases of soldiers sustaining wounds on the battle, although the actual number of wounded soldiers is less given that some soldiers sustained multiple wounds during separate incidents.
In previous statements on the total casualty count, Zelensky said that approximately half of the soldiers wounded in action later return to the battlefield.
The comments from Zelensky comes as a rare admission from a Ukrainian official about the casualty count on the front line.
Comparing Ukraine's casualty count to that of Russia, Zelensky said the interview that approximately 350,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, with between 600,000 to 700,000 instances of Russian soldiers sustaining wounds on the battlefield.
