President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s comparison of Russia’s war against Ukraine to “children fighting in a park” during his interview with ABC News published on June 6.
"We are not kids with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin at the playground in the park," Zelensky said, as quoted by the TV network. "He is a murderer who came to this park to kill the kids."
The U.S. president, who has repeatedly claimed he alone can bring an end to the war, said on June 5 that it might be best not to intervene in Russia’s war against Ukraine for now.
"Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy,” Trump said at a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House. “They hate each other, and they’re fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart. They don’t want to be pulled. Sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart."
Trump's statement came amid stalled negotiations, rising casualties from Russian drone strikes, and Russia's refusal to make any concessions.
Kyiv has repeatedly urged Russia to accept a Western-backed 30-day ceasefire as the first step toward a broader peace deal — a move that Moscow again rejected during the latest round of negotiations in Istanbul on June 2.
In the interview with ABC News, Zelensky also spoke of the "limitless" pain endured by a Ukrainian father who lost his wife and three children in a missile strike.
Zelensky added that Trump "could not feel fully and understand this pain."
"And it’s not about President Trump, it’s about any person who is not here in the country, who is some thousands of miles away — (they) cannot feel fully and understand this pain," Zelensky said, as quoted by ABC News.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
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