‘Putin Can Do Both at the Same Time’

President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Russia could open a second front against another European country even before the war in Ukraine ends, calling it part of Moscow’s wider “hybrid war against Europe.”

In an interview with The Guardian, Zelensky said Russian President Vladimir Putin was testing NATO’s red lines while continuing his brutal offensive in eastern Ukraine.

“He can do that,” Zelensky said when asked if Russia might attack elsewhere in Europe. “We must forget about the general European skepticism that Putin first wants to occupy Ukraine and then may go somewhere else. He can do both at the same time.”

Ukrainian President linked a recent wave of malign activity across Europe – including a decoy drone incursion over Poland and drone sightings over airports in Copenhagen, Munich, and Brussels – to Russia’s lack of battlefield progress.

“Putin is in a dead-end situation in terms of real success. It’s more like a stalemate for him,” he said. “That’s why these failures could lead him to look for other territories.”

He described Russia as a large, aggressive country that needs an external enemy to maintain internal cohesion.

“Befriending Russia is not a solution for America,” he said. “In terms of values, Ukraine is much closer to the US than Russia.”

With US President Donald Trump ruling out future US military involvement, the French and UK governments have promised to send troops as part of an eventual peace deal.

Asked if he would like British soldiers to arrive sooner – for example, to guard the border with Belarus – Zelensky said: “Of course. We’ve been asking for many things including weapons and membership of the EU and NATO.”

However, he said any European armed presence in Ukraine during active fighting must be approached cautiously.

“Leaders are afraid of their societies. They don’t want to be involved in the war,” Zelensky told the Guardian, adding it was “their choice” whether to deploy troops.

Pushing too hard, he warned, could risk losing “financial and military support from our partners.”

Zelensky confirmed that Russian forces had captured most of Pokrovsk after committing “170,000 men” to the assault.

“That’s the whole story. There is no [Russian] success there. And many casualties,” he said, adding that Moscow lost 25,000 soldiers killed and wounded in October – a record.

Asked if the EU and UK were doing enough ahead of another freezing winter, Zelensky replied: “It’s never enough. It’s enough when the war ends. And enough when Putin understands that he has to stop.”

He said he enjoyed warm relations with Keir Starmer and had “constant contacts” with London. “It’s not about him [the prime minister] personally,” he added, referring to limited aid.

Zelensky said he was working with international partners to protect Ukraine from nightly Russian drone swarms. While Kyiv continues to ask for Western fighter jets, allies including the UK have so far ruled out deploying them over central and western Ukraine.

He said he hoped to order 27 Patriot air defense systems from US manufacturers and urged European states to lend their existing Patriots in the meantime.