How dismayed are you that Donald Trump has made this deal, and how much is it going to put Ukrainian lives, lives at risk?

For sure it's a threat for us.

Any strengthening of Russian, uh, of Russia and any money coming to Russian war chest, they will go to the war.

That is very clear.

But I want to tell you that, like, 10 days ago I announced in Ukraine my peace plan, and it says that if we can't have a big deal right now, let's go by step-by-step de-escalation.

And the energy de-escalation can be a real thing.

So if, uh, Russian diesel coming to the world market will be accompanied by end of Russian attacks against Ukrainian power and energy and power infrastructure and end of Russian attacks against the ports in the Black Sea, because the world needs Ukrainian grain even more than Russian oil.

In reality, how effective have those refinery attacks been for you, and, and how critical are they to your defense?

Is there a risk that this new strategy by Ukraine might actually prolong the war?

No, there is no risk of this, uh, because the, the war was started by Russia, absolutely unjustified, 12 years ago.

Then Russia came to full-scale invasion four and a half years ago.

And, uh, Russia understands only one language, language of force.

And we are clear about this in Ukraine, unfortunately.

We don't have any doubt about this.

So, uh, Russia attacks Ukraine throughout all these four and a half years with all that they have.

What kind of sanctions do you want to see applied now, and how might that change the course of things?

Now, what is your view on the call by the former Defense Minister Fedorov that there should be a wartime election? Is there any appetite in the population for such a thing?

I don't think so that there is such appetite in general.

So it's an interesting story.

First of all, Mr. Fedorov was an important member of President Zelensky's team for many, many years.

And now he...

They have kind of a conflict because Zelensky kicked him out from the position of defense minister and Fedorov is unhappy with this.

And they have a political, personal, I would tell, conflict.

But if those interceptors are not to arrive, is there any other mechanism that might bring this war to at least a ceasefire, if not a close?

What to do in the meantime?

Absolutely.

The license doesn't mean that we will have them quickly, and we need them quickly.

We need them right now.

We need them yesterday.

Um, what will be the consequences? Uh, for Ukraine, it's clear.

We will lose more people, and more destructions will be in Ukraine.

How much could all of, all of that play into Zelensky's ability to continue either fighting the war or trying to negotiate peace?

What was behind this? Is that the case? What's the political situation in Kyiv at the moment?

Yeah, yesterday the cabinet of ministers was sacked and tomorrow probably we will vote for a new cabinet of ministers.

Really, not everybody, including me, understands why it has happened.

The initiator of this was President Zelensky.

It's not clear why all the cabinet, which also was completely consisted of people whom he chose himself, now he wants to choose another people.

What new approaches does he mean? It's not all so clear for the moment.

There is also an intrigue about current Minister of Defence, will he stay or he will be changed, which was just appointed six months ago and who is now quite ambitious.

Do you think the country can withstand another one?

Uh, what was behind this? Is that the case? What, what's the political situation in Kyiv at the moment?

Yeah, yesterday, Prime Minis-- uh, the Cabinet of Ministers was sacked, and, uh, tomorrow probably we will vote for new, uh, Cabinet of Ministers.

Really, um, not everybody, including me, understand what was-- wh- why it has, it has happened.

Uh, initiator of this was President Zelensky, and, uh, it's not clear why all the cabinet, which also was completely consisted of people, uh, who, whom he chose himself, now he wants to choose another people.

What new approaches does he mean? Well, so it's not all so clear for the moment.

There is, uh, also an intrigue about current Minister of Defense.

Will he stay or he will be changed? Which was just appointed, uh, six months ago, mm, and who announced quite ambitious, uh, programs, which some of them he started, some of them not.

Uh, do you think the country can withstand another one?

Is there a risk that this new strategy by Ukraine might actually prolong the war?

No, there is no risk of this, uh, because, uh, the war was started by Russia, absolutely unjustified, 12 years ago.

Then Russia came to full-scale invasion four and a half years ago, and, uh, Russia understands only one language, language of force, and we're clear about this in Ukraine, unfortunately.

We don't have any doubt about this.

So, uh, Russia attacks Ukraine throughout all these four and a half years with all that they have.

Unfortunately, yes, on Thursday, 30 civilians were killed, including children again, including women.

But I think it's clear after four years and a half that these, uh, long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities, they will not cause Ukrainians to surrender.

What kind of sanctions do you want to see applied now, and how might that change the course of things?

Sitting by the fountain outside the forum venue, Odessa's Opera and Ballet Theatre, I began by asking how important it was to demonstrate that something like this can still be held in wartime Ukraine.

Definitely still yes, but we are ambitious.

So I think we already proved that such big events can happen in Odessa.

So this time we want to show that first of all it can be a great tradition and also that Odessa is rethinking itself and Odessa is becoming the second center of Ukraine.

Yes, Ukraine has one capital, but any serious country should have several centers of gravity.

And Odessa today is probably the most important, both because of being a capital of the Black Sea, the biggest city on the Black Sea shore, not just in Ukraine, but in general, but also because Odessa is the biggest aim for Putin and because also Russia realizes importance of Odessa, but also because during these four years of full-scale invasion, Odessa has been changed significantly.

And before it was more cultural business city.

But another year later, a war that's now been going on nearly as long as World War I, do you start to feel like the end is in sight or if you-- Does that, is that still something you don't dare hope?

The Ukrainian member of parliament, Oleksiy Goncharenko, said the world had been distracted by other conflicts and his country was suffering as a result.

United States now definitely completely absorbed by what's going on in the Middle East, and in reality, the negotiations which were started, uh, by President Trump last year, they have no result for the moment.

I would be frank with you, we feel abandoned.

We still c- we will continue to fight.

For us, it's existential.

But, uh, I think the world really should step in and stop this suffering and stop these killings and stop this next escalation which is happening right now.

The world has means to do this, but unfortunately it looks like it doesn't have the will to do this, at least for the moment.

What do you need to see to make this deal that is being hammered out right now acceptable?

We need to take off this point about le- leaving and giving up our territories which we control today.

So we need to speak about freezing of the war on the current line.

Uh, second thing is, uh, what is super important from my point of view is security guarantees.

We need to receive a real security guarantees because exactly these days, 31 years ago in Budapest, was signed Budapest Memorandum, after which Ukraine voluntarily gave up Yeah, the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world.

And, uh, in, in, and we received for that from United States and United Kingdom some memorandum which appeared to be nothing because it didn't help us at all when Russia attacked us.

So then we had some security agreement with President Biden.

Why, why did you need to say that, that realism is not defeatism?

Uh, I wish we were talking about something more positive than this, but give us your views on what Donald Trump has said this evening.

Hey, Ian.

Uh, nice to hear you.

Thank you for your kind words, what you just said.

I heard your introduction, uh, and thank you for your constant support of Ukraine.

Um, but I would like...

You know, the problem is neither you nor me, nor probably your listeners, can change what Donald Trump does or does not, right? So this is the situation.

Okay, so-