Ukraine's Zelenskyy comments to journalists after talks with Trump

(22 Jan 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Davos, Switzerland - 22 January 2026
1. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy walking down stairs
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian President:
Reporter (English): "How concerned are you that by describing Europe as lost, that you may actually alienate them and make them frustrated about helping you in the future?"
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (English): "About Europe, you know, as I said, that there are very strong leaders, and they know what to do. They have to be, they have to rush. For example, I can tell you very, very honestly, we spoke about it, that in 2030, Russia will have army 2, 2.5 million people. They will have it. We will have ceasefire or we will not have ceasefire. It will be a pause in this war or God bless, it will be the end of this war with really strong security guarantees. But we don't know if Russia will come back. What they need? What (are) their goals? Nobody know. My suggestion, and I think about our families and our children, my suggestion to Europe that Russia will want to try who is strong in Europe. And my suggestion was to have a strong army, not less than 3 million people. And a year ago, I said that we are ready to share all our technologies, what we have, with our parties. We don't have enough funding to make strong everybody. We don't have enough money to make us stronger. That's why what we need to put on the paper the idea of common big forces, not use them, better not use them, but to have them."
++BLACK FRAMES++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian President:
"But we want to stop this war. And that's why I think (US) President (Donald) Trump can, he really can, because he has dialogue with Putin. Not everybody has dialogue, just even dialogue. He has dialogue with Putin on the same levels. I think America is much stronger than Russia, and you can see the result of this war. That's why I think that American army is stronger than Russian army, because of our experience with the war, with defending ourselves. And that's why I think he can do this."
++BLACK FRAMES++
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian President:
"Just forget about the war, you will not solve the problem."
Reporter (English): "Greenland is a distraction?"
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (English): "And that's why, of course, the questions of Iran, the questions of Greenland, a lot of different questions what can be, people can discuss. But it's understandable that we have and leaders have and different (inaudible), they have to think about a lot of problems. But this is a real war in Europe, which is already longer than the Second World War II, already. And we need to stop Putin."
++BLACK FRAMES++
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian President:
"So I mean, it's not news about this council (Board of Peace) for me. I didn't know how it will be, that it will be in Davos and whom President Trump will involve or propose invitation. I didn't know. It's up to him. But I said that for us, it's understandable that we will be in this board when the war will end. Now with Russians, we are enemies. Belarusian allies of Russians, we can't be with them."
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blasted his European allies Thursday for what he portrayed as the continent’s slow, fragmented and inadequate response to Russia’s invasion nearly four years ago and its continued international aggression.




"That's why what we need to put on the paper the idea of common big forces, better not use them, but to have them."





Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...