Zelensky says Ukraine has ‘low chance’ of survival without US, trusts Trump

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes his country would have a “low chance” of survival without US military aid, and insisted that he still trusts President Trump.

Zelensky, 47, also fretted that without US support, Ukraine could be vulnerable to another attack from the Russians within the next few years.

“Probably it will be very, very, very difficult,” Zelensky told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in a pre-taped interview that aired Sunday when asked about Ukraine’s chances without the US. “In all the difficult situations, you have a chance. But we will have [a] low chance — low chance to survive without [the] support of the United States”

“I don’t want to think about it,” he added. “Yes, we have to think about it.”

Since Russia’s unprovoked invasion of neighboring Ukraine nearly three years ago, the US has marshaled tens of billions of dollars worth of critical military aid to Kyiv. With that support, Ukraine has seemingly defied the odds, surviving much longer than most military experts thought possible.

Zelensky acknowledged that Ukraine has since dramatically stepped up its own domestic production of military hardware, but admitted “it’s not enough.”

To woo Trump and appeal to his more transactional instincts, Zelensky has pitched a deal for the US to tap into Ukraine’s vast mineral resources as a means of paying for American support.

“I trust President Trump because he’s the president of the United States, because your people, your people voted for him, and I respect their choice, and I will work President Trump,” Zelensky said of Trump, 78.

Trump has been adamant about brokering a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia to end the war. Last week, he announced a call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and said that negotiations would begin “immediately.”

The president later announced a call with Zelensky, who later admitted that the snub was “not pleasant.” Zelensky also confirmed reports that he advised Trump against trusting the Kremlin tyrant during the call.

“I said that he is a liar,” Zelensky recalled. “And he said, ‘I think my feeling is that he’s ready for these negotiations.’ And I said to him, ‘No, he’s a liar. He doesn’t want any peace.’ But I think he’s really a little bit scared about President Trump.”

Zelensky added that he believes Trump has a “chance” and that the 47th president “can push Putin to peace negotiations.”

“I think he can, but don’t trust him. Don’t trust Putin. Don’t trust just words about ceasefire,” Zelensky further cautioned, pointing to Putin’s record of not being reliable.

Last week, Trump dispatched Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to Ukraine to meet with Zelensky and discuss a deal on the country’s minerals. Special Presidential Envoy for Russia and Ukraine Keith Kellogg is tasked with ironing out a deal between the two warring nations.

The Trump administration has also begun prepping for negotiations in Saudi Arabia regarding the war’s end.

One red line for Zelensky is his insistence that Ukraine be included in negotiations on a final deal.

“I will never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine. Never. And our people, never,” Zelensky stressed. “there is no[t] any leader in the world who can really make a deal with Putin without us about us.”

When asked if Trump or Vice President JD Vance gave assurances that Ukraine “will have an equal seat at the negotiating table,” Zelensky replied, “Yeah, I understood, to be honest, that we have [a] common view on it.”

The Ukrainian leader also appeared to rule out the possibility of formally ceding territory to Russia, though he has previously conceded that Kyiv lacks the military power needed to recapture all of its land.

“Judicially, we will not recognize everybody and standards, it’s out of [the] constitution to recognize our occupied territory [as] territory of Russia,” Zelensky said. “We will never do it.”

That principle also applies to Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. Zelensky said that for some of the territory, “we have to return it diplomatically.”

Zelensky also warned that US withdrawal from NATO would destroy the powerful military alliance.

“The risk that Russia will occupy Europe is 100%,” he said.

“Knowing that he did not succeed in occupying us, we do not know where he will go. There are risks that this can be Poland and Lithuania because we believe — we believe that Putin will wage war against NATO,” Zelensky said, adding that Putin is waiting for a “weakening of NATO.”

“[I] believe that the United States will not take its forces, its contingents from Europe because that will severely weaken NATO and the European continent,” he added. “Putin definitely counts on that.”