President Volodymyr Zelensky told the US media outlet Atlantic that there could be “no greater victory” for US President Donald Trump than ending Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine, in an interview published on Thursday.
Trump has long promised to bring an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine – frequently claiming that if he, rather than his predecessor Joe Biden, had been in power when Russia launched its 2022 full-scale invasion it would never have happened.
In fact, before Trump was re-elected in January 2025, he promised to end Russia’s war in less than 24 hours.
Speaking to the Atlantic’s Simon Shuster on Wednesday in Kyiv, Zelensky said he believed “there is no greater victory for Trump than to stop the war between Russia and Ukraine” – adding that “for his legacy, it’s number one.”
The fact that Trump is preoccupied with his legacy, and with being viewed as a peacemaker, is no secret. The US president has repeatedly (and falsely) claimed to have ended at least eight wars.
Nor did he take it well when the Nobel Prize committee snubbed him for the 2025 peace prize in favor of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado for her efforts to promote democracy in her home country.
Text messages from Trump to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoer leaked to the press on Jan. 19 suggest that being passed over for the prize had significantly impacted his behavior while seeking to gain control over Greenland.
“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Trump reportedly wrote in a text message to Støre.
Thursday’s interview with Zelensky is also notable in that the president questioned Trump’s motives at one point during the exchange – in what appears to be a rare instance of him criticizing the unpredictable US leader.
“Yes, he wants there to be less deaths,” Zelensky told Shuster. “But if you and I are talking like adults, it’s just a victory for him, a political one.”
Zelensky also appeared to appeal to Trump’s political self-interest, suggesting that “the most advantageous situation for Trump is to [end Russia’s full-scale war] before the midterms.”
The US midterm elections – held, as the name suggests, halfway through each presidential term – are scheduled for Nov. 3, 2026.