Bill Whitaker (00:01):
Tonight, Scott Pelley in Ukraine with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Scott Pelley (00:07):
The Ukrainian president faces a critical moment in his alliance with the United States. In an interview this past Friday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited President Trump here to Ukraine to see how Russia's unprovoked invasion three years ago continues to threaten the peace of the Western world. Zelenskyy is navigating a sharp turnabout in Washington. The United States had been leading NATO and arming Ukraine and isolating Russia. But since taking office, President Trump has praised the Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin, and criticized Zelenskyy. This past Friday, a Trump official met Putin in Russia, about the same time we sat down with Zelenskyy in his hometown. It had been a week since Russia killed nine children on a playground.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
The story will continue in a moment.
Scott Pelley (01:08):
You seem to have a real hatred of Vladimir Putin. "Putin? 100% hatred. Not even 99.9%.", Zelenskyy told us.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (01:23):
Though this doesn't mean we shouldn't work to end the war as soon as possible and transition to diplomacy. But how else can you see a person who came here and murdered our people, murdered children? We're inside a school bomb shelter right now, the bomb shelter of a school.
Scott Pelley (01:47):
The bomb shelter classrooms beneath the city of Kryvyi Rih were silent. School 41 was mourning its students killed on April 4th. Swing sets pierced by shrapnel stood where Zelenskyy laid his memorial to the 9 children and 10 others cut down by a Russian missile. He asked us to look at their faces and told us that while the great powers endlessly debate war and peace, these children will never speak again. Mr. President, what does an atrocity like this tell you about the progress of the war?
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (02:30):
It mean that we can't trust Russia. We can't trust negotiations with Russia.
Scott Pelley (02:39):
Russia strikes Ukrainian cities daily. 1,700 attacks on schools, 600 children dead, 780 hospitals and clinics attacked, 13,000 civilians killed, and up to 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers dead, all for Vladimir Putin's vanity war, to expand Russia to NATO's doorstep. "Our people have paid the highest price possible.", Zelenskyy told us.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (03:16):
There is no higher price. We have given all our money, all we have in terms of finances. But most important, we gave the lives of our people.
Scott Pelley (03:27):
Those were the points Zelenskyy struggled to make in February as President Trump opened negotiations with Russia and initially excluded Ukraine. Then Trump rewrote history saying falsely that Ukraine had started the war and calling the democratically-elected Zelenskyy…
Donald Trump (03:49):
A dictator without elections, Zelenskyy better move faster. He's not going to have a country left. Got to move. Got to move fast because that war's going in the wrong direction.
Scott Pelley (03:59):
When President Trump called you a dictator and said that Ukraine started this war, what did you think?
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (04:13):
I believe, sadly, Russian narratives are prevailing in the US. How is it possible to witness our losses and our suffering to understand what the Russians are doing and to still believe that they are not the aggressors, that they did not start this war? This speaks to the enormous influence of Russia's information policy on America, on US politics, and US politicians.
Donald Trump (04:45):
You're not in a good position. You don't have the cards right now.
Scott Pelley (04:49):
And Zelenskyy told us he heard Russia's narrative from Trump officials in that disastrous Oval Office meeting in February.
Donald Trump (04:58):
I think you're gambling with World War III.
Scott Pelley (05:01):
Zelenskyy grew tense as President Trump said both sides were suffering, Ukraine's people and the Russian invasion force.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (05:14):
It's a shift in tone, a shift in reality, really. Yes, a shift in reality. And I don't want to engage in the altered reality that is being presented to me. First and foremost, we did not launch an attack to start the war. It seems to me that the vice president is somehow justifying Putin's actions. I tried to explain you can't look for something in the middle. There is an aggressor and there is a victim. The Russians are the aggressor and we are the victim.
Scott Pelley (05:52):
Vice President Vance suggested that Putin could be trusted and it was Zelenskyy who was creating a false narrative.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (06:01):
Have you ever been to Ukraine that you see what problems we have?
JD Vance (06:04):
I have been to-
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (06:06):
Come once.
JD Vance (06:07):
I've actually watched and seen the stories and I know what happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour, Mr. President.
Scott Pelley (06:15):
Would you invite President Trump to Ukraine?
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (06:19):
With pleasure. Please.
Scott Pelley (06:21):
This, Zelenskyy apparently wanted President Trump to hear in English.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (06:28):
We want you to come and I think to come and to see. You think you understand what's going on here. Okay, we respect your position. You understand. But please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of formats of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead. Come. Look and then let's move with the plan, how to finish the war. You will understand with whom you have a deal. You will understand what Putin did. And we will not prepare anything. It will not be theater with preparing actors in the streets and et cetera. We don't do this. We don't need it. You can go exactly where you want, in any city which been under attacks. What I said to them, "Just to come and to understand."
Scott Pelley (07:38):
With his invitation on its way, he switched to Ukrainian. Does the United States have your back?
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (07:59):
Even in this pause of mine, there's a problem because I want to answer truthfully and quickly that the United States is our strategic, strong partner. But the pause is doubt. I don't doubt that the people of America are with us, but in a long war, many details are forgotten. In Europe, everyone fears that the United States may drift away from Europe.
Scott Pelley (08:32):
Can you do without the United States?
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (08:41):
I think without the United States, we will suffer great losses, human and territorial, so I wouldn't like to consider that. But this is our destiny, our land, our life. One way or another, we will end this war.
Scott Pelley (09:00):
The US has donated about $175 billion in aid. Roughly 100 billion of that was military, most of which was spent in the US on manufacturing American weapons. What would you say that the American people have gotten for that money?
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (09:22):
We have always believed that this is our shared struggle, that Ukraine is defending our shared values, that we are defending Europe as a whole. I can only thank the people of the United States of America for their support, their strong support, but the people dying right now, with all due respect to the US and Europe, the ones dying right now are Ukrainians. This is why I say that by giving us weapons, other countries are protecting their own people.
Scott Pelley (09:58):
But in the Trump administration, US aid has all but stopped. Last month, the White House announced partial ceasefires, but they haven't happened, and now Trump says he is losing patience with Putin.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (10:15):
Putin can't be trusted. I told that to President Trump many times. So when you ask why the ceasefire isn't working, this is why. Putin never wanted an end to the war. Putin never wanted us to be independent. Putin wants to destroy us completely, our sovereignty and our people.
Scott Pelley (10:40):
Putin's troops occupy about 20% of Ukraine. The 600-mile front is largely frozen. World War I trench warfare plus drones. It's estimated that as many as 200,000 Russian troops have been killed. What does just peace look like to you?
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (11:01):
To not lose our sovereignty or our independence. We, no matter what, will take back what is ours because we never lost it. The Russians took it from us. The temporarily occupied territories, we will not recognize as Russia those territories that the Russians temporarily occupy. We will bring them back. When or how, I cannot say, but what we can't bring back are the human lives. There's only one thing that can be done, justice. We cannot let go the issue of justice. Those who killed must pay for the murders.
Scott Pelley (11:50):
Zelenskyy told us any true ceasefire must include a guarantee of Ukrainian security. He imagines an international peacekeeping force and would like the US to be part of it.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (12:05):
This could mean a force protecting airspace and providing air defense, which may consist of airplanes rather than boots on the ground.
Donald Trump (12:14):
I will end the war in Ukraine immediately. I will get it done while I'm president-elect.
Scott Pelley (12:21):
During his presidential campaign, Trump boasted he would end the war before Inauguration Day. Instead, today, Palm Sunday, Russian missiles struck the Ukrainian city of Sumy. At least 32 civilians are dead, including another two children. In your view, what is at stake in this moment?
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (12:53):
Security. The security of the world is at stake. If we do not stand firm, he will advance further. It is not just idle speculation. The threat is real. Putin's ultimate goal is to revive the Russian Empire and reclaim territories currently under NATO protection. And the United States, being part of NATO, means it will be involved in any potential conflict. Considering all of this, I believe it could escalate into a world war.
Scott Pelley (13:25):
A risk to the world.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (13:28):
Yes, for the world, there won't be a safe place. Not a safe place for anyone.
