Zelensky offered to buy weapons from incoming Trump administration with frozen Russian assets
President Volodymyr Zelensky previously offered U.S. President-elect Donald Trump for Ukraine to buy American weapons at the expense of $300 billion in frozen Russian assets, Zelensky revealed in an interview with American podcaster Lex Fridman published on Jan. 5.
"This is one of the security guarantees. Take the money, what we need for our interior production, and we will buy all the weapons from the United States. We don't need gifts from the United States," Zelensky said in his wide-ranging interview with Fridman.
"It will be very good for your industry. For the United States. We will put money there. Russian money. Not Ukrainian. Not European. Russian money. Russian assets. They have to pay for this," Zelensky added.
Zelensky did not comment on Trump's reaction to the suggestion.
Trump and his team have been critical of U.S. spending to support Ukraine. Michael Waltz, Trump's appointed National Security Advisor for his upcoming term said on Dec. 15 that a "blank check... just isn't a strategy."
Despite previously criticizing U.S. aid for Ukraine, the Financial Times reported on Dec. 21, citing undisclosed sources, that Trump may not halt U.S. military support for Ukraine.
Zelensky has taken steps to foster a positive relationship with Trump, despite previously having a fraught relationship stemming from Trump’s 2019 impeachment trial. The two leaders met on Sept. 27 in the midst of the U.S. presidential election campaign. They met again on the sidelines of the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, alongside French President Emmanuel Macron on Dec. 7.
"He (Trump) is strong... He is young... and his brains work," Zelensky said when asked why he thinks Trump won the U.S. presidential election in November.
Zelensky previously said that the country must do everything possible to end the war through diplomatic means in 2025, adding that a war would "end faster" under a Trump administration.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
