Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the Kremlin will become a target and Russian officials should check for bomb shelters if Moscow does not stop its invasion of his country, Axios reported Thursday.
“They have to know where their bomb shelters are,” Zelensky told Axios in an interview. “They need it. If they will not stop the war, they will need it in any case.”
Answering criticism from US President Donald Trump and his right-wing government over the indefinite suspension of elections in wartime Ukraine, Zelensky also told Axios that he would not seek to remain in power once peace comes.
“My goal is to finish the war,” not to continue to run for office, he said.
Russia has occupied about 20 percent of Ukraine and rained bombs and missiles on civilian and military sites across the entire country since launching a full-scale invasion in 2022.
However, Russian forces struck the Ukrainian government complex in the capital Kyiv for the first time only this September.
Zelensky said Ukraine would not target civilians in Russia because “we are not terrorists.”
However, he indicated that Ukraine hopes to obtain a more powerful US weapon, which he did not name, to threaten strikes deep inside Russia.
Axios quoted Zelensky as saying he had told Trump during a meeting in New York this week “what we need — one thing.”
“If we will have such long-distance weapons from the United States, we will use it,” he said in a clip of the interview released by Axios.
US and European backing for Ukraine’s ability to strike deep inside Russia has often wavered, with Washington and European capitals nervous of provoking Moscow into an expanded conflict.
However, Ukraine is now frequently hitting Russian energy industry installations and Zelensky said Trump had given him the green light to continue.
He said Trump had told him that he “supports that we can answer on energy.”
sms/aha
© Agence France-Presse
