Zelenskyy: Trump Supports Increasing Pressure On Russia To End The War
- 18.06.2026, 19:32
The President of Ukraine stated that there are “sufficiently strong” tools available.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that his American counterpart Donald Trump supports increasing sanctions pressure on Russia in order to force it to end the war.
He made this statement at the opening of the Ramstein-format Contact Group meeting on Thursday, June 18.
“We had (at the G7 summit in France—ed.) good meetings and talks with all the leaders, including President Trump. The President of the United States spoke very clearly about the need to increase pressure on Russia to put an end to this terrible war that Russia has unleashed against Ukraine and all of Europe. And this is also the common position of all G7 leaders,” Zelenskyy noted.
The head of state also reported that there are “sufficiently strong” tools to “put Russia on a path where diplomacy becomes the only option.”
He called Russia’s strike on the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra a crime against humanity and stated that Ukraine is preparing retaliatory measures in response to these attacks.
“And today you can see one such response in the Moscow region this morning. That is why our long-range sanctions are very effectively targeting Russian oil facilities and refineries,” Zelenskyy said.
The president emphasized that Russia is already facing a fuel shortage and a significant drop in its budget revenues.
However, as Zelenskyy noted, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is not ending the war against Ukraine and insists on continuing it. Therefore, pressure on Moscow must be intensified, he stressed.
“Every initiative to support Ukrainian drones and our domestic arms production in Ukraine—as well as, of course, in collaboration with you and our partners—and every sanction imposed on Russia in connection with this war—all of this must be scaled up,” the President of Ukraine noted.
Zelenskyy says that Russia is currently paying for the continuation of the war against Ukraine with losses of at least 30,000 soldiers each month on the front lines—those killed and seriously wounded.